Governor Cláudio Castro (PL-RJ) resigned this Monday as head of the state Executive. His departure from office was announced to allies in a ceremony at the Guanabara Palace, government headquarters, and took place on the eve of the resumption of the trial of the Ceperj case by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Castro, who is at risk of being ineligible in this trial, wants to run for the Senate and, therefore, would need to leave the government by the beginning of April. The resignation before the deadline, according to interlocutors, is an attempt to empty the TSE process and escape the revocation of the mandate.
In a press conference at the government headquarters in Rio, Castro took stock of his administration, cited a series of deliveries and recalled his arrival at the Guanabara Palace, in 2019, “in a completely improbable way”, as he described it. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2018, on the ticket of former judge Wilson Witzel, and took office after the impeachment of the incumbent; later, Castro was re-elected in 2022.
“Today I end my time at the head of the state government. I’m going in search of new projects. I’m a pre-candidate for the Senate. I leave with my head held high”, said Castro.
Scheduled for 4:30 pm, the event was delayed by around two hours. Among those present at the Guanabara Palace were allies of Castro who will be candidates on the same ticket this year, such as the former Secretary of Cities, Douglas Ruas, PL’s pre-candidate for government, and the mayor of Belford Roxo, Márcio Canella (União), tipped to run for the Senate alongside Castro.
State deputies from the government base also participated, such as Fred Pacheco (PMN) and Alexandre Knoploch (PL).
Castro is accused of abuse of political and economic power and conduct prohibited by public agents in the 2024 campaign. The Public Electoral Ministry accuses the governor and his former deputy, Thiago Pampolha (currently a counselor at the State Court of Auditors), of irregularly hiring electoral cables through Ceperj.
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Pampolha left the position of vice-governor last year, following an articulation by Castro with the aim, at the time, of projecting the candidacy of the then president of the Legislative Assembly (Alerj), Rodrigo Bacellar, to succeed him in the state government. At the time, Castro nominated Pampolha for a vacancy in the TCE to remove him from the succession line and favor Bacellar, who would take over the state Executive after the governor’s resignation.
Subsequently, however, Castro and Bacellar broke politically, and the latter was removed from the presidency of Alerj at the end of 2025, following an investigation by the Federal Police on suspicion of leaking a confidential investigation and connections with a criminal faction.
As the state does not have a vice president and the president of Alerj is removed from office, the line of succession is now headed by the president of the Court of Justice (TJ-RJ), judge Ricardo Couto, who takes over the government on an interim basis. According to the legislation, he must organize an indirect election for Alerj’s state deputies to choose a name to lead the government in a buffer term until the next governor is chosen.
For the indirect election, the PL hopes to nominate the former Secretary of Cities, Douglas Ruas — who resigned from the position last week — to run for the buffer mandate, with the expectation that he will be in office during the main electoral campaign, which runs until October. Last week, however, an injunction from Minister Luiz Fux overturned part of the rules approved by Alerj for the indirect election, changing the reduced period for non-compliance.
Under the rules created by the Assembly, candidates could leave public positions just 24 hours before the vote. This section was annulled by Fux, who reestablished the deadline set by law, 180 days.
