The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) rejected a request presented by the Liberal Party (PL) to produce evidence in advance against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in an offensive that sought to investigate the alleged electoral use of a samba school parade during this year’s carnival.
The action focused on the Acadêmicos de Niterói parade, held in February 2026, whose plot exalted Lula’s trajectory. For the party, the event would have gone beyond the limits of artistic manifestation and assumed the character of political-electoral propaganda, with possible use of public resources and the structure of the federal government.
In the decision, the General Inspector of Electoral Justice, Minister Antonio Carlos Ferreira, rejected the initial petition and terminated the case without resolving the merits.
The PL intended to obtain a series of information to support a possible electoral judicial investigation (AIJE), such as data on public spending on carnival, transfers to samba schools, list of guests in official boxes, records of authorities’ agendas and even audience metrics and parade engagement.
When analyzing the case, the minister pointed out the absence of procedural interest, highlighting that there was no proof that the party tried to obtain the information through administrative means, such as requests based on the Access to Information Law (LAI).
“The intended information – all related to the Samba Schools parade in Rio de Janeiro, in the period between 2023 and 2026 – essentially concerns public spending, budget transfers, administrative contracts, agreements, records of official agendas, television audience data and broadcast images of the event”, he wrote.
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According to the decision, much of the requested data is public in nature and is subject to transparency rules, and there is no justification for directly contacting the Electoral Court without a prior attempt to access them through these channels.
The rapporteur also rejected the allegation of urgency, a requirement that can justify the early production of evidence. According to him, no concrete elements were presented that indicate a risk of disappearance or alteration of the intended information, much of which concerns permanent administrative records.
Another point raised was the comprehensive nature of the request. For the minister, the measure cannot be used as an instrument for a generic investigation in search of possible irregularities, without a precise delimitation of the facts and evidence to be produced.
“Especially in the electoral field, given the particularities and specificities of this Specialized Court, proposing a procedure of this nature requires special caution, and must be supported by the concrete demonstration of the indispensability of judicial intervention to produce the intended evidence, a circumstance that, I repeat, does not occur in the case in question”, explained the minister.
Despite the rejection of the PL’s request, there is still another action in the TSE that discusses the Acadêmicos de Niteroi parade at this year’s carnival. As a preliminary matter, before the presentation in Sapucaí, the Court denied requests for early electoral propaganda presented by the Novo and Missão parties that questioned the association’s plot and maintained that the samba-plot that portrays the story of President Lula went beyond the cultural character and became a piece of political promotion, equivalent to an implicit request for a vote.
On the occasion, the ministers followed the understanding of the rapporteur, Minister Estela Aranha, who highlighted that the legislation prohibits the explicit request for a vote in circumstances that cannot be judged with certainty in this first analysis of the case.
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“Possible illicit activity, even within the scope of electoral abuse, must be investigated later, in accordance with the legislation. There is, at this moment, no concrete element of an early electoral campaign, nor any circumstance that allows us to confidently affirm the occurrence of irregularity”, he stated. Despite the denial of the injunction, the process continues for analysis of the merits and the Public Electoral Ministry has already been summoned to comment.
