The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brazil rejected this Thursday an appeal by former president Jair Bolsonaro and maintained its decision to declare him ineligible for eight years for “abuse of political power” by misinforming about the electoral system.
Unanimously, The seven judges rejected the appeal of the former president’s defense and reaffirmed the ruling of the TSE itself. on June 30 that left Bolsonaro out of the next presidential elections in 2026.
The right-wing leader, who called the sentence a “stab in the back,” had already announced that He will also appeal before the eleven judges of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the highest court in the country.
The judges had from Friday to Thursday to present their decision on the electoral court website, in the so-called “virtual plenary session”, without debating in person.
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Bolsonaro was condemned by the TSE for “abuse of political power and misuse of the media,” having questioned the reliability of the electronic ballot box system with “false” information during a meeting with ambassadors in July 2022, three months before the presidential elections.
In that June ruling, the TSE had reached a majority of five votes to two against the former president.
Bolsonaro lost the October elections by a small margin to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (49.1% of the votes compared to 50.9%).
At the event with diplomats at the Alvorada presidential residence, Bolsonaro assured without evidence that he was seeking to “correct flaws” in the electronic ballot system with the “participation of the Armed Forces.”
In his speech, broadcast on public TV and social networks, the former army captain said that The supposed vulnerability of the system could be used to manipulate the result against them, something he repeated on numerous occasions during the electoral campaign against Lula.
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After the defeat of their leader in October, radical Bolsonaro supporters blocked roads and camped in front of barracks across the country calling for military intervention.
On January 8, a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded and looted the buildings of the Presidency, Congress and the supreme court in Brasilia.
Bolsonaro faces another 15 administrative processes in the electoral court and is the subject of five investigations in the supreme court, with prison sentences.
In another case, the electoral justice ordered Bolsonaro this Thursday to pay a fine of 10,000 reais (about $1,980) for promoting negative propaganda against Lula during the campaign.
AFP
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