Eventual maintenance of (-SP) as André do Prado’s (PL-SP) replacement for the Senate race this year would result in the entire ticket being revoked after the First Panel of the (Supreme Federal Court), according to experts consulted by the Sheet.
The launch of the pre-candidacy of André do Prado, who is now president of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, was held for Saturday (20), and he said that he will nominate another name while he appeals the STF’s decision.
Professor Vânia Aieta, president of the Electoral Law Commission of the IAB (Institute of Brazilian Lawyers), assesses that the PL’s strategy is mainly political in nature.
“Eduardo Bolsonaro will have to be replaced in ten days given the declaration of ineligibility at the time of the registration trial. The others remain. If they are not replaced, the entire ticket will fall. The party will never let that happen. They know that this attempt will not succeed. It is a fact of victimization to garner votes”, he states.
Eduardo was sentenced to four years and two months in prison in an initially semi-open regime for the crime of coercion during the process for his role in intimidating the Brazilian Judiciary.
With the conviction, the former parliamentarian becomes a dirty record and is prevented from running for eight years. There is still an appeal against the decision.
According to lawyer Fernando Neisser, professor of electoral law at FGV-SP, the conviction already has effects on Eduardo’s eventual candidacy, even before the publication of the ruling or the final judgment (when there is no longer room for appeals).
“From the moment the conviction occurred, Eduardo Bolsonaro was ineligible as provided for in complementary law 64 of 1990”, he states.
According to him, however, the person who formally recognizes this condition is not the STF in the criminal trial, but when analyzing a possible application for candidacy registration.
Neisser states that this does not prevent the PL from registering Eduardo within the legal deadline. “The party has the freedom to choose the candidate and request registration. After that, there is a deadline for challenges, and opponents or the Public Electoral Ministry can maintain that he is ineligible”, he says.
The case would initially be judged by the TRE-SP (Regional Electoral Court of São Paulo).
In the lawyer’s opinion, if the conviction is maintained, the tendency is for the registration to be denied. “The slate is one. If one of the members, whether the member or one of the substitutes, has their registration rejected, the entire slate is rejected,” he says.
Even so, appeals would be made to the (Superior Electoral Court), which would allow Eduardo to remain a formal candidate during the process. “The party can keep him on the ticket up to 20 days before the election. After that, if he remains ineligible and is not replaced, the votes attributed to the candidacy can be annulled”, he says.
Electoral lawyer Francisco Irapuan Camurça agrees that maintaining Eduardo would represent a risk. “If he is a candidate and is ineligible, as happened with Eduardo Bolsonaro, the votes allocated to the ticket may be annulled, because the candidacy for the Senate, formed by the incumbent and two substitutes, is indivisible”, he states.
Regarding his conviction, Eduardo, who currently lives in , declared in a note: “The real objective of this pointless trial is just one: to remove my name from the elections.”
