The (Superior Electoral Court) unanimously decided to make the former Antonio Denarium () ineligible until 2030 for abuse of political and economic power in 2022 and also formed a majority this Tuesday (28) to revoke the mandate of the current governor, Edilson Damião (União Brasil).
The definitive conclusion of the trial should only be given in the session next Thursday (30), after a complement to his vote. The minister stated, however, that he will not change the merit of his position.
Denarium and Damião were accused of using the public sector to obtain political advantages in the electoral dispute, in addition to making electoral use of the Cesta da Família and Morar Melhor social programs.
To make Denarium ineligible, the rapporteur of the case, minister Isabel Gallotti, André Mendonça, Estela Aranha, Antonio Carlos, Floriano Azevedo Marques and the president voted. In the case of Damião, Kassio voted for acquittal.
Denarium left office to run for the Senate in March, when Damião took office. The trial has already lasted two years.
The trial began last August and was resumed this Tuesday with the vote of Minister Estela Aranha, who had requested a review (more time for analysis). “I found that three of the four illicit conducts recognized by the court of origin actually occurred with the magnitude outlined in the judgment under appeal,” he said.
“Finally, I note that these conducts are serious, considering the quantitative and qualitative aspects, and also the fact that the election was defined by a difference of just over 40 thousand votes, circumstances that must be weighed in the specific case”, he stated.
As for the Family Basket, the judge rejected the politicians’ defense that the program was just a combination of two other programs already running in the state.
“The rules of the aforementioned programs provided for different requirements for the granting of benefits, in addition to the different costs of the programs, since Renda Cidadã was promoted with state resources, while emergency aid for the pandemic was federal resources”, he pointed out.
In the case of Morar Mais, Aranha also stated that there was no specific law to support the execution of the program. He also said that the “liberation of values took place indiscriminately”.
“Likewise, the existence of an abusive act was evidenced regarding the transfer from the state government to 12 municipalities of resources from budgetary credit, totaling R$ 69.8 million, an unprecedented amount in the state, in the month of June of the 2022 election year, since the act occurred without presenting objective criteria for defining the amount by the governor, nor for distributing the resources and monitoring their application. Therefore, there are no technical or legal analyzes on the part of of the state administration”, he said.
Estela Aranha asked to see the previous session to analyze the point raised by Kassio for the acquittal of Damião, who simultaneously held the positions of vice-governor and secretary of State of the State Secretariat for Infrastructure of Roraima. Even so, he was not named in the records as a direct practitioner of illicit acts.
For the minister, however, once the requests made in an impeachment action against the majority party are recognized, one of the consequences is the declaration of the nullity of the vote received by the party.
“In the context of the case in which the seriousness of the abusive act carried out by the holder of the mandate is recognized, to the point of declaring the nullity of all votes received by the ticket and with this the revocation of the diploma of governor of the state, I do not see it as possible to maintain the diploma of vice, even if he is not directly accused of committing any illicit act”, said Estela.
Next, ministers Antonio Carlos, Floriano Azevedo Marques and Cármen Lúcia voted in a similar way.
“The remaining core of the controversy continues to reveal a concrete commitment to equal conditions between the candidates and the fairness of the electoral process. The conduct comprises a continued strategy of promotional use of assistance programs in an election year with strong social capillarity and special sensitivity to influence the expectations of a vulnerable portion of the electorate, impacting the normality and legitimacy of the elections”, said Antonio Carlos.
Floriano also highlighted the then governor’s attempts to cover up illicit conduct.
“In reality, the lack of specific law [para o programa Morar Mais] It is so blatant that there was a presentation of a state bill forwarded by the government of the state of Roraima to the Legislative Assembly after the election, already in the context of investigating electoral crimes, trying to give the appearance of lawfulness to that program, to that free distribution of goods”, he stated.
UNDERSTAND THE CASE
The TRE-RR understood that the use of the public machine to carry out actions prohibited to public agents during the electoral period was proven, with the aim of obtaining political advantages in the dispute, in addition to making electoral use of the Cesta da Família and Morar Melhor social programs.
There were four revocations at the state level, the last two in January and November 2024.
Isabel Gallotti made an 82-page vote in which she confirmed the TRE’s decision. According to the minister, the distribution of goods and services in an election year, with the delivery of basic food baskets and benefits; the renovation of homes for low-income families; the transfer of almost R$70 million in resources from the state government to 12 of the state’s 15 municipalities according to legal criteria; and the extrapolation of advertising expenses justify the conviction.
“The supposed situation of public calamity was used as a subterfuge for the massive irregular transfer of resources for the purpose of electoral benefits,” he stated, in reference to the justification that the programs served to serve the population during the Covid-19 pandemic.
André Mendonça stated that the creation of the Cesta da Família social program and the improper execution of the Morar Melhor program, both in 2022, an election year, would result in the loss of his mandate.
The governor was re-elected with a difference of 44 thousand votes for second place. The minister stated that if only the beneficiaries of the two programs were considered, there would be a quantity greater than the distance between the candidates.
Mendonça highlighted the exponential jump in the number of beneficiaries, going from 10 thousand families in the previous program (2020) to the possibility of serving up to 50 thousand families in the new 2022 program.
