Brazil: Court Mulls Banning Jair Bolsonaro from Politics over Election Integrity Comments

Brazil’s top electoral court, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), began a trial on Thursday morning against former President Jair Bolsonaro that could end with a ban on him from running for public office.

Bolsonaro stands accused of abuse of political power and misuse of the media. If found guilty, Brazil’s TSE may impose an eight-year ban from running for public office on Bolsonaro, effectively rendering him unable to participate in the 2026 presidential race.

The Superior Electoral Tribunal announced via its website on Thursday morning that the court had reserved three ordinary sessions for the case, explaining that the trial may extend beyond Thursday’s session and onto the upcoming June 22 and June 29 sessions.

The top court continued its announcement with a step-by-step rundown of how the trial will be conducted, explaining that, according to Brazilian law, both sides will have a 15-minute time limit to present their oral arguments, which will then be followed by the Electoral Public Ministry issuing their opinion. Once both arguments and the MPE’s opinion are heard, then the court’s judges will vote on the verdict. The court does not operate with a jury.

The charges stem from an incident that took place in July 2022, when Bolsonaro allegedly spread “misinformation” about Brazil’s electoral system and its ballot boxes during a meeting with ambassadors held at the Alvorada Palace, which serves as the official presidential residence. Brazil’s far-left Democratic Labour Party (PDT) filed a lawsuit last year demanding Bolsonaro lose his right to run for office over the alleged conversation.

Bolsonaro, during the meeting, allegedly claimed that voting machines used in the 2018 presidential election, which he won, would have automatically filled in votes for the leftist Worker’s Party (PT). Bolsonaro’s claims stem from a now-deleted viral video in which a Brazilian citizen claimed that the electronic ballot box autofilled his vote to that of the PT party’s candidate, Fernando Haddad. TSE issued a statement declaring the video false. 

The former president also reportedly mentioned an inquiry that the Brazilian Federal Police opened to investigate a hacker attack on TSE’s internal systems that occurred in 2018. Bolsonaro allegedly said that, according to the investigation, hackers “could change names of candidates, take votes from one and transfer them to others.”

Brazil’s TSE released a statement in 2021 in which they refuted claims of electoral fraud during the 2018 presidential election, asserting that there is not a “single proven [incident of] fraud in the 2018 elections or any other election in 25 years of use of the electronic voting machine.”

Bolsonaro also allegedly linked ministers (justices) of the top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, Alexandre de Moraes, and Roberto Barroso to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the PT candidate who defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

“Minister Fachin made Lula eligible and is now president of the TSE,” Bolsonaro allegedly said. “Minister Barroso was a lawyer for the [talian communist] terrorist [Cesare Battisti, who was deported by Bolsonaro in 2019] and was welcomed here by President Lula in December 2010. Minister Alexandre de Moraes advocated for groups that, if I were a lawyer, I would not advocate for.”

Lula da Silva is currently serving his third presidential term after narrowly defeating Bolsonaro in last year’s election. Lula had been convicted and sentenced to over two decades in prison for alleged corruption until the nation’s top court, the STF, overturned Lula’s multiple convictions in 2021 on procedural grounds, which allowed him to run.

Both the STF and STE are led by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, a self-styled “anti-fake news” crusader who has spearheaded an extensive list of censorship actions against Brazilians. Most prominently, de Moraes has ordered multiple police raids against lawmakers, comedians, content creators, and regular citizens supportive of Bolsonaro.

In May, de Moraes overturned a presidential pardon that Bolsonaro issued to conservative former lawmaker Daniel Silveira, arrested in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in prison for publishing a profanity-laced video on his YouTube channel that insulted the STF and its members.

The TSE removed all videos of the meeting between Bolsonaro and the foreign ambassadors from Google and all major social media platforms in August. The videos were also removed from the state-owned TV Brasil channel, which originally broadcast the event.

In April, Brazil’s Electoral Public Ministry (MPE) expressed its support for having the top electoral court impose a ban on Bolsonaro. MPE’s Deputy Attorney General for Elections Paulo Gonet Branco said the evidence gathered indicated that Bolsonaro had committed an “abuse of political power” during his meeting with the foreign diplomats.

In an interview given to CNN Brasil on Wednesday, Bolsonaro described the trial as a “tempest in a teacup.”

“I don’t know why create a tempest in a teacup, it was just explained to them [the ambassadors] how the electoral system worked,” Bolsonaro said. “I didn’t mention the word fraud there, regarding future elections.”

Bolsonaro defended his actions during the meeting he held with ambassadors last year in a separate interview with CNN Brasil, stating that he invited the foreign diplomats to the meeting only after Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) Minister (justice) Edson Fachin held a similar meeting to discuss the topic of Brazil’s elections with foreign ambassadors.

“I invited the ambassadors, about 60 of whom showed up, or their representatives, and talked about the Brazilian electoral system, how it is in practice,” Bolsonaro said, asserting that his remarks were not attacks on Brazil’s electoral system, but rather criticisms and an “answer” to STF Minister Fachin.

In addition to Thursday’s trial, TSE is contemplating an additional fifteen open investigations against Bolsonaro, all of which could lead to Bolsonaro’s ban should he be found not guilty in Thursday’s trial.

This week, Bolsonaro’s lawyer Tarcísio Vieria told Reuters that the former president faces an “obviously unfavorable” climate in the trial. Vieira added that Bolsonaro will appeal to the STF if he is found guilty by the TSE and banned from running for public office.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.