The (Superior Electoral Court) formed a majority to confirm the accused of involvement with a criminal organization in this year’s elections, expanding the ineligibility rules.
The court already has four votes to reject the appeal of councilor Fabinho Varandão (), from Belford Roxo (RJ), against the decision of the TRE (Regional Electoral Court) of Rio de Janeiro to deny the registration of his candidacy due to an accusation , not yet tried, of involvement with a militia.
The virtual session ends on Thursday night (18) and there are still three votes to be cast. The result may be changed if a minister changes his already announced vote.
When contacted, Varandão’s defense did not respond. When the registration was rejected, the councilor criticized the decision. “I have never been tried, there has been no conviction. Understanding is not law. When I arrive in Brasília, the law will prevail”, stated Varandão on his social networks.
The terms of the rapporteur’s vote, Minister Antônio Carlos Ferreira, have not yet been released. The decision, if confirmed, according to which it is not up to the judge to define the cases in which the candidate’s previous life will imply ineligibility.
Rio de Janeiro court judges analyzing candidacy records based on constitutional rule on ineligibility.
The rule alludes to the candidate’s previous life, administrative probity and morality. It establishes, however, that a . There is no legal provision, neither in the Ineligibility Law nor in the Law, that prevents candidacy solely due to the status of defendant or accused.
The judges of Rio de Janeiro stated in their decisions that there were situations not covered by electoral legislation and declared that they could not “close their eyes to reality”.
A Sheet identified five cases in which the understanding was adopted. Only Varandão’s case reached the TSE because he was the only one in the group to get enough votes to be elected.
The councilor was accused of threatening and extorting competitors in the distribution of internet signal in neighborhoods of Belford Roxo. The vote of electoral judge Maria Helena Pinto Machado, from TRE-RJ, describes the testimonies of the investigation against Varandão and other evidence of the criminal action.
“Although there is no sentencing decision on the charges, the criminal practice that is the subject of the criminal action is definitely incompatible with the morality required for the exercise of the elective mandate for which he intends to run, in addition to violating the normality of elections.
Experts fear a lack of clear criteria in defining which accusations are sufficient to prevent the registration of a candidacy.
One example was the granting of the candidacy for re-election of the (MDB), in Duque de Caxias, despite the conviction for being part of the criminal organization led by his father, the drug dealer.
The Public Ministry defended the registration of the candidacy. In an opinion to , he stated that he is aware of the conviction in the first instance, but said that “the sentence has not yet become final, nor has it been reviewed by the renowned Federal Regional Court”.
The understanding did not only affect those involved in armed criminal organizations.
Businessman Clébio Jacaré () had his registration rejected to run for Mayor of Nova Iguaçu. He is accused of leading a criminal organization that, according to the Public Ministry, bought the administration of Itatiaia City Hall and promoted embezzlement of public resources.
Clébio was arrested in September 2022, when he was running for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He awaits sentence in freedom.
His case also indicates the lack of clear criteria in defining the rule. Fábio Ramos, defeated candidate for Mayor of Valença (RJ), had his candidacy approved by the Electoral Court even though he was arrested in the same operation as Clébio Jacaré and was a defendant in the same case.
The administration of the minister, who assumed the presidency of the court in June, has encouraged measures to combat the influence of organized crime in the election and has been supportive of a tougher understanding to block candidacies.
In a recent interview, she cited the Constitution’s rule that talks about previous life and said that organized crime nominates people without procedural obstacles so as not to attract ineligibility, so that the judge has no reason to deny the registration request.
Thus, she says, “it would be possible for us to clean up this request for registration of candidates”, if it turned out that this person “would have to represent or replace someone who could not be there” — in reference to the world of crime.
