The Federal Supreme Court scheduled the trial of actions that question an amendment to the Clean Record Law that benefits convicted politicians for next week. The change, approved by the National Congress last year, brings forward the counting of the period of ineligibility, which opens a gap for names such as former President of the Chamber Eduardo Cunha and former governors Anthony Garotinho (RJ) and José Roberto Arruda (DF) to compete in this year’s elections.
Politicians benefited because, according to the new rule approved in Congress, the period of ineligibility begins to be counted from the moment of conviction, and no longer after serving the sentence, reducing the period away from the polls.
The action will be debated in a virtual trial scheduled to begin on the 22nd, Friday, and end on the 29th, the following week. On that occasion, ministers will discuss whether to suspend the law sanctioned in September 2025.
The rule was questioned by the Rede Sustentabilidade party at the end of last year. The party maintained that the changes promoted by parliamentarians in the Clean Record Law “disfigured” rules that protected probity and administrative morality. The party asked for the effects of the law to be suspended as a precautionary measure and for the rule to be invalidated.
The Palácio do Planalto sent to the STF, in the context of the action, an opinion that maintained that changes made by the Federal Senate during the processing of the law — the Network’s main target of questioning — were not irregular. Then, in November last year, the body spoke out against the suspension of the law.
At the time, Jorge Messias argued that the text that changed the Clean Record Law all the hypotheses of ineligibility initially foreseen, preserved the eight-year period and “improved the rationality of the system”. According to the AGU, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed all articles of the law that could be considered unconstitutional.
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In January of this year, the Attorney General of the Republic Paulo Gonet defended the suspension of three changes made to the Clean Record Law in 2025. The PGR contested, for example, the section that establishes that, in different convictions for the same facts, or for similar situations, the impediment to candidacy only counts from the first decision.
He also defended the suspension of another section, which defines diplomacy as the last moment of analysis of the causes of ineligibility, in cases of changes in the situation occurring after the registration of the candidacy. According to the attorney general, this review can only take place until the elections.
Regarding the rule that shortened the period of ineligibility and could benefit convict politicians, Gonet warned of cases in which this period is eventually exceeded before the full sentence is served, when convicts have their political rights suspended. The minister said that the simultaneous counting of two periods of ineligibility in these cases was unconstitutional.
On the other hand, the PGR said it agreed with the 12-year limit of ineligibility for various convictions for administrative improbity.
Since Gonet’s opinion, the case has been in the office of minister Cármen Lúcia, for a decision on the suspension. Instead of deciding individually, the minister chose to take the issue to an individual judgment, initially, to discuss the suspension. On the other hand, there is still the possibility that ministers will end up discussing the validity of the changes.
