The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), annulled this Wednesday (18) two points of the no. He determined that the six-month disqualification period for the candidacy be respected and that voting by deputies be secret.
The decision directly affects those who have been moving to run for the buffer mandate, until the end of 2026, after the governor () in the next few days to run for the Senate.
The injunction was issued in response to requests from , the acronym of the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, , from October to the state government. The case was sent to the STF plenary for analysis.
Fux understood that indirect elections must respect the minimum period of six months for disqualifying Executive Branch positions, as provided for in electoral legislation. The law approved by Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro) and sanctioned by Castro had provided for a deadline of one day after the double vacancy of the governor’s position.
This change prevents all pre-candidates who work together with deputies to seek the buffer mandate from competing in the indirect election. State secretaries Douglas Ruas (Cities) and Nicola Miccione (Casa Civil) are trying to support the PL, while the Secretary of Parliamentary Affairs of the Lula government, André Ceciliano (PT), also sought out deputies to try to make the candidacy viable.
Castro’s allies had been arguing that previous decisions by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) on supplementary elections opened loopholes for making the deadline for non-compliance in the case of elections not scheduled in the electoral calendar more flexible. They said that a request for exemption from a dispute that there was no certainty would happen could not be charged.
Based on precedents from the STF itself, however, Fux rejected the thesis. “The exceptional or unexpected nature of the double vacancy does not eliminate the undue influence of the political power that is intended to be obstructed through the hypotheses of ineligibility.”
Indirect elections became a reality on the political horizon of Rio de Janeiro when Castro organized the (Tribuna de Contas do Estado) last year.
The objective was to make room for the president of Alerj, Rodrigo Bacellar (União Brasil), to take office from April and compete for succession already in office. Plans changed after the deputy was removed from command of the House on charges of leaking information about a police operation against former deputy TH Joias, linked to Comando Vermelho.
In addition to the deadline for non-compliance, Fux also determined that the election in Alerj be secret. The objective, he says, is to avoid the influence of organized crime in the election.
“I believe that these considerations must gain greater weight in an environment of proliferation of organized crime, as unfortunately only occurs in the State of Rio de Janeiro, with the expansion of drug trafficking groups and armed militias, including penetration into the political environment”, wrote Fux.
The order, in this case, contradicts a previous decision by the STF, which established open voting in order to respect the principle of publicity regarding the acts of deputies. The minister, in this case, considered that the violent scenario in the state must be taken into account.
“However, this premise is inapplicable to the concrete situation in which the freedom of conviction of parliamentarians remains compromised by the threat of personal retaliation, given the fragility, on a factual level, of the protection that should be granted to the political representative.
