This Wednesday (25th) the order determined the immediate revocation of the mandate of the deputy (União), retired president of Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro).
The decision allows state deputies to elect a new president of the Assembly, who will automatically take over the state government, today, judge Ricardo Couto.
According to the state Constitution, Alerj has six sessions to elect a new leader. He will be responsible for conducting the indirect election to choose the buffer governor, who will lead the Guanabara Palace until December.
The TSE’s determination was made during the reading of the minutes of Tuesday’s session (24), when Bacellar was convicted, along with the former governor () for abuse of political and economic power in the 2022 elections, in the case of the so-called , .
In Tuesday’s session, the announcement of the result — made by the president of the TSE, minister Cármen Lúcia — had raised doubts. She had not commented directly on the decision to immediately lose the deputy’s position.
The decision was crucial in the ongoing political articulations for the buffer mandate. And it is also directly related to Ricardo Couto’s length of stay as interim governor — a period that deputies want to reduce as much as possible.
When questioned by minister Floriano de Azevedo Marques about this point, Cármen suggested that the matter had “lost its purpose”. From her speech, she seemed to refer only to Castro and vice Thiago Pampolha, who resigned last year to take up a seat at the TCE (State Audit Court).
“It’s better to wait for the publication [do acórdão]even for lawyers…”, she said, without finishing her speech.
She also made reference to the vote of rapporteur Isabel Gallioti, who is no longer at the Court, presented last year. The former minister had defended the immediate loss of her mandate.
“In that case there was a loss of mandate. As there was a resignation…”, said Cármen, without returning to the topic and without making reference to Bacellar.
After the end of the session, there were doubts about the deputy’s situation even among ministers, lawyers and advisors who followed the deliberation in person.
On the one hand, a minister and an advisor said that the loss would be immediate, with a total of votes. On the other hand, three magistrates and two lawyers interviewed under reservation stated that there was a lack of clarity regarding this conclusion and that it would be necessary to wait for the publication of the trial ruling.
The expectation of deputies is that, with the loss of mandate, a new election for the presidency of the Assembly will be held as soon as possible.
Deputies from Castro’s base are already lining up the scenario without Bacellar. The intention is to elect deputy Douglas Ruas (PL), a pre-candidate for government for the October election, as president of Alerj. For the buffer mandate, the most popular name in this group is deputy Guilherme Delaroli (PL), current acting president of the House.
Representative Chico Machado (Solidarity), an ally of Bacellar, has already presented himself as a pre-candidate. He must count on the veiled support of the former mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD), pre-candidate for the October election.
The disintegration of the succession chain began in May last year, when Castro convinced former vice-governor Thiago Pampolha to leave his position to (State Audit Court) in order to make room for Bacellar, at the time president of the Assembly.
The design predicted Castro’s resignation to run for the Senate. Under the plan, Bacellar would be chosen by Alerj, where he had broad support, in an indirect election as a “buffer governor” to run for re-election in October.
The plan fell apart when Bacellar was arrested and removed from office by order of minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the (Supreme Federal Court), under suspicion of leaking information about the operation, linked to Comando Vermelho. He denies it.
Bacellar was replaced by Delaroli in command of the Assembly. As he is interim, he cannot take over the state government in the event of vacancy in the positions of governor and deputy.
