Attacked by (PL), A, who turns 15, has already barred the former president’s main political opponent.
In the 2018 election, it was (Superior Electoral Court) after being convicted in the second instance for the crimes investigated in. He was out of the election, and the runner -up and current Finance Minister, (PT), competed in his place.
The law returned to public debate after Bolsonaro defended, in February this year, its revocation and claim that the norm would only serve to “pursue [a] RIGHT “. The former president is ineligible after being convicted of abuse of political power and misuse of the media in June 2023.
The Clean Record Law had as its main effect on Brazilian law the increase in the ineligibility period from three to eight years.
For a candidate to be framed and, consequently, loses his political rights, he must be convicted by a collegiate body in the crimes provided for in the legal text itself or to fit the other requirements brought by the device.
When Lula was barred, the law was the target of criticism from the left. The (PT) stated that it was the voter who should decide whether a candidate was eligible or not. The PCO (Party of the Working Cause) defended the revocation of the Clean Record on social networks.
In 2022, Lula also criticized the legislation, which he called silly, and argued that it be rediscussed. “You often punish one person and, three months later, that person regains your right to be a candidate,” he said.
The political rights of the petista were returned after the (Supreme Federal Court) annulled a sentence of the Lava Jet rendered by the former judge, today senator by União Brasil-PR. The annulment made without effect the condemnation in the second instance in the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region).
Reform attempts
After Bolsonaro’s conviction on the TSE, a law that altered the clean record were filed in the House.
The first of these was presented by Bibo Nunes (PL) on July 4, 2023, four days after the end of the trial that spread the political rights of the former president. The project wants to reduce the ineligibility time from eight to two years. Nunes argues that the shorter deadline would be “more than enough for the purposes to be desired (sic).”
Another project, presented by Helio Lopes (PL) in 2025, tries to amend the law based on the American Convention on Human Rights.
The scholarship deputy wants to review the excerpt about the crime of abuse of economic and political power, making a double condemnation in the electoral and common justice. The two changes would benefit Bolsonaro, the former mayor of Rio de Janeiro Marcelo Crivella and the former attorney of the Republic.
Both projects are in the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship Commission, with no voting date.
The beginning of the count of eight years of sanction is also the subject of attempts to change. An electoral mini -reform project, presented by Deputy Dani Cunha (União Brasil), wants to change the initial milestones of ineligibility. The proposal was approved in the House and is stopped in the Senate.
The changes were praised by, then president of the PT and today minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, which called the reform “critical revision not to criminalize politics.”
An action on the same theme was filed by the PDT in 2020. The Court did not grant that the theme has already been declared constitutional in a 2012 action.
The minister was one of those who diverged from the majority, arguing that it is “reasonable that the court will check, over time, if she [a lei] can produce unjust or incompatible results with the Constitution. “
Other cases
The Clean Record has already barred other prominent names in politics since its sanction.
Exponent of Operation Lava Jato, Deltan had his candidacy for federal deputy invalidated after the TSE understood that he anticipated his dismissal of the position of Prosecutor to get rid of 15 disciplinary procedures in the CNMP (National Council of the Public Prosecution Service).
The law provides for the ineligibility of members of what they requested “dismissal or voluntary retirement pending disciplinary administrative proceedings”.
In the 2022 elections, the then presidential candidate and former federal deputy was prevented from running the president by the TSE based on the clean record. The history of ineligibility, however, is older.
A whistleblower of the monthly, he was convicted in 2013 on charges of passive corruption and money laundering. Its eight years of ineligibility in force until December 24, 2023.
The deadline is due to the fact that the penalty of the former deputy was extinguished after a Christmas pardon signed by then-President Dilma Rousseff (PT) on December 23, 2015. The counting of the ineligibility period began to count from there.
(Republicans), former senator by Rio de Janeiro and former mayor of the state capital, is another that is prevented from competing for elective positions due to the clean record. His last conviction is from October 2024, when he was framed by the Rio de Janeiro Regional Electoral Court (RJ) for abuse of political and economic power during the 2020 municipal elections.
The federal deputy, who announced on Tuesday (3) having left Brazil, was already automatically ineligible due to conviction by the first class of the Supreme Court for the accusation of ideological falsehood and invasion of the system of (National Council of Justice). There is still an appeal of the decision. The ineligibility, however, is automatic by the Clean Record Law, and is already valid now.
