09/29/2024 – 8:36
Judge José de Souza Brandão Netto, from the 123rd Electoral Zone of Araci, a city 221 km from Salvador (BA), used verses of cordel to deny the challenge to Zé de Migué’s (PP) candidacy for the Municipal Council of Teofilândia, a neighboring city to Araci, due to alleged illiteracy.
The “Juntos Somos Mais Fortes” coalition, of the PSD, PL, Republicans and Avante parties, questioned the reading and writing ability of the Progressistas candidate and asked him to take a test to prove that he is literate.
In his decision, the judge defended the right of all citizens in the democratic process and stated that the candidate presented a document that proves his educational level.
According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), one of the documents accepted to prove literacy is the National Driving License (CNH), presented by Zé de Migué.
“But you have to not know how to read and not know how to write an intelligible sentence, for the Court to consider you ineligible. The country needs to continue the fight, as there are more than 9 million illiterate people out of the race. For the TSE, the education level of the citizen with a National Driving License is proven. The school certificate attached eliminates the illiteracy spoken against the impugned defendant”, says the judge.
The fourth paragraph of article 14 of the Constitution, which deals with political rights, provides that illiterate and unenlisted people – foreigners and young people who are in mandatory military service – are ineligible. The 54-year-old candidate for councilor declared that he had incomplete primary education.
Data from the TSE show that 26 candidates running for office in this year’s elections declared themselves illiterate, with one of them running for mayor: Pedrinho Mazão (PT), in Wenceslau Braz, 287 km from Curitiba (PR).
According to the 2022 Census, the number of illiterates in the population over 15 years old fell 2.6 percentage points, from 9.6% to 7%, in relation to 2010 data. In absolute numbers, however, there are still 11.4 million Brazilians who cannot read or write.
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