Successor to the presidency of the (Superior Electoral Court), he will lead the 2026 elections in a court occupied by a group of ministers with whom he has a good relationship and who can reinforce his powers during his term.
Kassio should be sworn in as head of the court at the end of May or beginning of June this year, before the electoral conventions, which begin in July.
He has stated internally that he wants his presidency to involve political disputes and that his administration will act to ease the political tension in the country.
In this aspect, the style should be the opposite of that of Alexandre de Moraes in the 2022 elections. Kassio, however, also states that his intention is for the TSE to maintain vigilance over possible excesses.
The TSE is always presided over by one of the three ministers of the (Supreme Federal Court) who make up its staff. In addition, there are two members of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and two of the so-called class of jurists, made up of members of the legal profession. The vacancies are rotating.
Kassio takes Cármen’s place and will have the minister as vice-president. Both were nominated to the Supreme Court by the former president (PL) and usually vote in a similar way in cases of interest to the Bolsonarists in the constitutional court.
Until the eve of the first round of elections, the TSE will have as general inspector Minister Antonio Carlos Ferreira, from the STJ, who also got close to Kassio in recent years and with whom he maintains good dialogue.
The other court members during the campaign will be minister Dias Toffoli, from the STF, STJ minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva and lawyers Floriano de Azevedo Marques (close to Alexandre de Moraes) and Estela Aranha (close to Cármen Lúcia and Flávio Dino).
This year’s acid test will be the conduct of an election that could put the president (PT) face to face with a member of the Bolsonaro family.
The former president, who is in prison after being convicted of an attempted coup after the 2022 defeat, gave approval for one of his sons, the senator (PL-RJ), to run as a candidate.
Although he was appointed by Bolsonaro, Kassio has also become closer to the Lula government in recent years and has been an influential minister in the government’s choices for ministers of other courts, such as the STJ and the TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region).
He is one of the judges from Piauí appointed by Lula in May last year to the STJ. In addition to Kassio, who is also from Piauí, Brandão had the support of governor Rafael Fonteles (PT).
Kassio is also one of the ministers who have worked to break resistance in the Senate to the appointment to the Supreme Court of , the attorney general of the Union under the Lula government.
In recent years, Kassio has conveyed both in public speeches and to people close to him that during his tenure at the TSE, a stance of little interference should prevail.
He has said that this applies both to decisions taken during the dispute and in the period after the vote, with the intention of avoiding “third rounds” in the Judiciary after the elections.
In June 2023, in the trial due to the meeting with foreign ambassadors at Palácio da Alvorada, Kassio made a vote in which he defended the electronic voting system, but said he did not see enough gravity in the action to deserve the ex-president’s conviction.
According to the order of succession, Kassio will become head of the TSE in the first half of 2026, before the start of the campaign, and will remain in the post until May 2027. His successor as president, according to the court’s tradition, will be André Mendonça.
When he became vice-president of the TSE, in June 2024, he stated that its role is to preserve the popular will and ensure that it is “always the last voice”, and that this has always been its position.
He also said he wanted society to be at ease when placing the people he elected in the positions of public agents.
Before this year’s elections, the court has important judgments pending that could be put on the agenda during Cármen Lúcia’s administration, in the first half of the year, related to the 2022 elections.
as to Sheet showed, and at least two parliamentarians, in addition to consultations on electoral rules not yet analyzed, which could have effects on the candidates’ strategies and the formation of platforms in the states involved.
Among those facing impeachment proceedings in the electoral court are governors Cláudio Castro (PL), from Rio de Janeiro, and Antônio Denarium (PP), from Roraima, senator Jorge Seif (PL-SC) and deputy Maurício Marcon (Podemos-RS).
Politicians remain in office pending analysis by the last instance of the Electoral Court.
