Brazil elections 2022: Opposition challenges Bolsonaro’s candidacy for “abuse of power”

On Thursday, September 8, the opposition Democratic Labor Party (PDT) challenged the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s candidacy for the October 2 elections under the accusation of “abuse of political and economic power”.

The lawsuit, which requests the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to declare the current president and candidate for reelection “ineligible”, is based on Bolsonaro’s behavior on Wednesday, during the celebrations of the Bicentennial of the country’s Independence from Portugal.

The opposition claims Bolsonaro turned those celebrations into large rallies of a marked electoral character, in which he mobilized tens of thousands of supporters and disqualified other candidates.

“Being public acts intended to celebrate a historical fact, these events could not be transformed into an electoral tribune, with the use of structures paid for with public money,” says the complaint filed by the PDT before the electoral court.

It further adds that “the event was distorted only to satisfy the interests of an electoral campaign, without even turning to the purposes for which it was intended.”

On September 7, Bolsonaro led an institutional act centered on a military parade held on the Esplanade of the Ministries avenue in Brasilia.

After that ceremony, on the same Esplanade, he held a speech in front of the public that had attended the parade, mostly aligned with Bolsonarism.

Bolsonaro then moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he also witnessed a military ceremony for Independence Day on Copacabana beach and, as in Brasília, held another speech immediately after the official celebration.

With information from EFE