STF has 2 votes to overturn changes approved by Congress; judgment could bar Cunha and Garotinho’s candidacies
Minister Luiz Fux, from , accompanied the rapporteur, to overturn sections of the law that relaxed the rules of the Clean Record Law. The vote was cast on Tuesday (May 26, 2026). With this, the score is 2-0 against the changes approved by Congress.
Cármen Lúcia was present on Friday (May 22), when the trial began in the virtual plenary. The ADI (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality) questions changes to the Clean Record Law. In her vote, the minister defended restoring the rigidity of the rule and invalidating changes in the following points:
- loss of mandate: Under the new law, the 8-year period began to run from the decision to lose the position. With the minister’s vote, the previous rule returns: ineligibility extends to the remaining period of the mandate plus eight years after the end of the legislature.
- waiver to avoid revocation: the current rule (LC 219) started the 8 years of punishment from the date of resignation. Cármen Lúcia’s vote proposes returning to the old model, in which the count considers the remaining period of the mandate plus 8 years.
- criminal convictions and misconduct: the minister questions the new rules that changed initial milestones for counting deadlines in criminal convictions and for administrative improbity, arguing that Justice must follow the previous, more rigorous criteria.
NAMES ON THE RADAR
The case is being followed by politicians trying to return to the polls in 2026. If the minister’s vote prevails, the STF will overturn the changes that shortened ineligibility periods, frustrating the expectations of names like Eduardo Cunha, Anthony Garotinho and José Roberto Arruda.
Cunha had his mandate as federal deputy revoked in 2016 for breach of parliamentary decorum. In 2022, a of TRF-1 suspended part of the Chamber’s resolution that made him ineligible and released the former deputy to contest that year’s elections. Cármen Lúcia’s vote goes towards restoring Cunha’s ineligibility.
Former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Garotinho by the TSE in the 2018 elections, but had favorable and contrary decisions in the following years.
Former governor of the Federal District, Arruda had by the Electoral Court due to convictions for administrative improbity linked to Operation Pandora’s Box.
2026 ELECTIONS
The trial takes place before the phase in which the parties make their candidates official. Party conventions will be held from July 20th to August 5th, and candidacy records must be submitted to the Electoral Court by August 15th.
It is at this stage that the (Superior Electoral Court) and the TREs (Regional Electoral Courts) analyze whether candidates meet the eligibility conditions. Therefore, the STF’s decision may arrive in time to influence the way these requests will be judged in the 2026 elections.
If the Supreme Court maintains the new law, politicians currently prevented from running may try to apply a more favorable count of ineligibility periods. If Cármen Lúcia’s vote prevails, part of the changes will be overturned, and the Electoral Court must follow the previous rules in the cases affected by the decision.
