After successive disagreements in relation to the text, the Federal Senate postponed the voting of a bill that weakens the clean sheet law and loosen the ineligibility period for politicians. The proposal reduces the period in which a condemned politician is prevented from running election and could benefit former President Jair Bolsonaro.
“I believe that even here inside the plenary, we can evolve to achieve with the benches that highlighted to enter a deal,” said the rapporteur, Senator Weverton (PDT-MA).
Senators disputed the vote on the urgency (procedure that accelerates the process) of the project, made last year, and asked the proposition to return to the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ). Senator Alessandro Vieira’s request (MDB-SE) was defeated by 34 votes to 20.
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The text was the subject of dispute between the opposition and the government around a stretch that for supporters of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva can benefit Bolsonaro. In the final newsroom, the petistas were able to change the original version of the project to prevent the proposal from being used to reduce the former president’s ineligibility period.
“I talked to the PL long and they already knew that (Bolsonaro) was not really benefited, so it will not change anything,” said the rapporteur.
During the session on Tuesday, 18, petistas and pockets expressed support for the proposal. Beto Faro (PT-PA) says that the bill “aims to give justice and equity” and Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) said it is “inadmissible people who have been due to a court decision”.
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The text creates new conditions for the beginning of counting the ineligibility period and, if approved, will benefit even candidates who have already been convicted, shortening the time of removal from the claims.
Jurists, as one of the creators of the Clean Record Law Márlon Reis, argue that if the bill was approved with the same text that came from the House, it could make Bolsonaro – ineligible until 2030 – again eligible.
Márlon Reis talked to senators at the end of August 2024 to try to convince them to vote against the project. After this dialogue, the Senate PT presented a proposal to prevent Bolsonaro from benefiting and expressed a position contrary to the proposition.
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The point of divergence between pockets and petistas last year is the case of abuse of economic or political power.
In the text that came from the House, the counting of the ineligibility period is started in the year of the election in which the abuse occurred. The candidate would only become ineligible in an episode that implied the revocation of diploma, registration or mandate, something that is not required today.
It is in this situation that Bolsonaro could benefit. Márlon Reis argues that the current ineligibility did not cause the former president’s registration or diploma, as he lost the election and was not graduated. By this interpretation, the former president could recover his condition of eligibility. An excerpt from the project also says that the text has an effect on past conviction.
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Government leader in the National Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), said he presented the amendment to change this passage because the writing left the text “very subjective” and opened the possibility for the interpretation of judges. “The device was loosening immunity, it was very open,” he said. “It would depend on the judge’s subjectivity to say what an ineligibility was imposed.”
According to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the bill does not affect Bolsonaro, but he said the party would work to prevent the change in the text proposed by Randolfe. “This is a project that does not reach it. There is a concern of the Lula administration base, has already presented amendment presented by the rapporteur, but we will highlight (vote on a separate text).
The bill, authored by Deputy Dani Cunha (União-RJ), daughter of former mayor Eduardo Cunha (Republicans-RJ), establishes two possible counts for the eight-year-old ineligibility period.
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The first account from the judicial decision that decrees the loss of office and not after serving the sentence, as it is today. It is valid for members of the Executive and the Legislative Power at the federal, state and municipal level.
The second occurs in case of resignation after representation of members of the legislature or the executive who can lead to the opening of process by breaking the constitution at various levels. In this case, the date of ineligibility begins from renunciation.
In the current legislation, the politician is ineligible throughout the period in which he would exercise the mandate and eight -year -old count would begin after the end of the legislature.
The text also sets the ceiling of ineligibility in 12 years, if a politician receives a new conviction that would again make him ineligible. If a senator, for example, waives in his first year of office, he can stay up to 15 years without being able to compete for an election.
The Clean Record Law is the target of constant attacks by Bolsonaro, which expressed wanting to “end the Clean Record Law” and has also been criticized by the Mayor Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), who said the period of eight years is an “eternity”.
