The Court of Justice of Rio (TJ-RJ) rejected, this Thursday, a request from the PDT for the election for the presidency of the Legislative Assembly of Rio (Alerj) to take place by secret ballot. The election is scheduled for this Friday morning. The decision by the Rio Courts frustrated the allies of the former mayor of the capital, Eduardo Paes (PSD), who were betting on the secret vote to try to generate dissent in the base of state deputy Douglas Ruas (PL), whose allied parties have a majority in the Assembly.
In the decision handed down on Thursday night, judge Suely Lopes Magalhães stated that the decision on open or closed voting, in the case of an election for the presidency of Alerj, falls within the “organizational autonomy of the Legislative House”. Therefore, in the judge’s opinion, it would not be up to the Judiciary to interfere with the format.
Usually, Alerj chooses its presidents with the deputies being asked to vote in alphabetical order, and pronouncing their choices into the microphone. The PDT, which intended to launch state deputy Vitor Junior in the dispute for the presidency of the Assembly, argued in its request to the Rio Court that this model opens up a gap for “possible undue interference” in the process, and therefore requested the adoption of secrecy in voting.
The judge, however, stated that it was not possible to point out “an effective and concrete risk” to deputies in the event of an open vote for the presidency of the House.
“In principle, unlike what is observed in relation to the indirect election of the Governor and Vice-Governor – an issue that obviously transcends the internal affairs of Parliament and is currently under debate within the scope of the STF –, the definition of the voting method for choosing the Board of Directors of the Legislative Assembly – whether open or closed – concerns the organizational autonomy of the Legislative House”, stated the judge in her order.
Magalhães is the current acting president of the Rio Court of Justice, replacing judge Ricardo Couto, who had to assume the position of acting governor after the vacancy left by former governor Cláudio Castro (PL). In her order in the PDT action this Thursday, she stressed that the position of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) is to maintain Couto as the first in the line of succession until the Court decides the format of the buffer election to replace Castro.
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As a result, although state deputies are free to elect a new president of Alerj, this new head of the Legislature will not immediately take over the government of Rio.
The Rio Court’s decision to keep the vote open in the Alerj election should cause Paes’ group to abandon the dispute, as indicated earlier this Thursday. The PSD’s assessment is that this voting format makes another candidacy unfeasible: together, Douglas Ruas’ PL and two parties that have already declared support for him in the election for governor, the PP and União Brasil, surpass the barrier of 36 votes needed to elect a president of the House.
In March, Alerj even held an election with an open vote that ended with Ruas winning the presidency of the House, with the support of 45 deputies. At the time, even parliamentarians from the PSD, Paes’ party, supported the PL deputy.
Paes and Ruas will be opponents in the Rio government election in October. Before the dispute at the polls, they are fighting a behind-the-scenes dispute involving command of the state machine, which is relevant to boosting candidacies.
