The president of the TSE also advanced the recommendation with 10 rules that will be presented in detail during a meeting with leaders of regional courts
The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Cármen Lúcia, defended on Monday (2) the “ethical and transparent” conduct of the judges. In a speech to open the election year, the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) also said that “specific issues” require electoral judges to “behave even more rigorously” during this year’s election.
To the “ethical and transparent” conduct of the judges regarding their “actions, motivations and decisions” confers legitimacy on the “action of the Judiciary” and guarantees the “fairness” of the elections. The president of the TSE also added that “democracy imposes ethics, transparency and efficiency in the actions” of Justice.
“Distrust in government agencies and agents is a source of unrest for citizens and a factor of legal, social, political, economic and electoral instability,” he declared.
The president of the TSE said that political parties are expected to “equally” perform their functions in “an environment of legality, morality and public clarity of their behavior”. Regarding the role of the Public Electoral Ministry, the minister stated that the body will have to work with “speed, adherence to the law and competence” during the election. Cármen Lúcia also highlighted the role of lawyers and the press in maintaining trust in the Electoral Court and in the elections.
Regarding “technologies”, the president of the TSE said that they can be “abusedly used” to acquire “knowledge and information”. However, Cármen Lúcia considered that media platforms can also “contaminate established formal processes”. “This year, the Electoral Judiciary is working incessantly so that all technological innovations can have a preferably preventive response, but it can also be repressive”, he communicated.
Recommendation to Regional Electoral Courts
During her speech, Cármen Lúcia announced that she will present a recommendation to the presidents of the Regional Electoral Courts (TREs) at a meeting scheduled for February 10. The minister said in the opening speech of the election year that the document has 10 rules defined based on themes extracted from the “current legislation”, which are:
- The publicity of hearings with parties and their lawyers, candidates, political parties and their direct or indirect interested parties is guaranteed, publicizing their holding, whether they occur inside or outside the institutional environment;
- Whether a magistrate, with measure in their interventions and public demonstrations, or in private professional agendas on matters relating to the electoral process, whether or not the topics are subject to their jurisdiction;
- The appearance of a member of the judiciary at a public or private event, in which, during this election year, they fraternize with candidates, political parties and their direct or indirect stakeholders in the electoral campaign, generates a conflict of interests, compromising the integrity of judicial action;
- Demonstrations in any medium, including electronic and digital media, about the magistrate’s personal political choice are unacceptable as they establish doubts about the impartiality of the decision to be taken in the exercise of jurisdiction;
- Magistrates should not receive offers, gifts or favors that cast doubt on their impartiality when making decisions;
- Ethically or legally, signals favorable or contrary to candidates, political parties or ideologies that may lead to conclusions or conclusions about favoritism or persecution in trials are not permissible;
- Lawyers who make up the electoral judicature must remain away from participating in acts or proceedings in which the law firms that are part of or are represented;
- Magistrates should not undertake non-judicial activities that affect the fulfillment of their functional duties, the judicial function is a personal, non-transferable and irreplaceable performance;
- It is the competent authority’s responsibility to make judicial and administrative acts public, preventing misunderstandings, hasty or inadequate disclosure relating to the electoral process, especially by people outside the process;
- The transparency of the actions of the Electoral Justice bodies, of their members in a republican position, only with the broad publicity of what happens in the process, in the actions of magistrates and civil servants, ensures the voter’s right to secure information based on facts, therefore, each person’s choice in the election will be free and Democracy will have been protected.
