Brazil elections 2022: Roberto Jefferson will run for Rio de Janeiro government

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The announcement was made on Wednesday, the 29th, in a publication on the social networks by Cristiane Brasil, daughter of the former president of the Brazilian Labour Party PTB.

Roberto Jefferson, who is under house arrest by order of the Supreme Court (STF), is considered a candidate for the government of Rio de Janeiro.

The announcement was made Wednesday, the 29th, in a publication in the social networks of Cristiane Brasil.

Despite the name suggesting a left-leaning unionist labor party, the party has recently shown strong support for the government of Jair Bolsonaro, presenting policies from a more conservative angle.

The preliminary candidacy opens an alternative in the Bolsonarist base in Rio. The current governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, is the name backed by President Jair Bolsonaro in the race for the Guanabara Palace.

JEFFERSON DARED TO CRITICIZE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES PUBLICLY

In August 2021, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized the arrest of former congressman Roberto Jefferson and the head of the conservative Brazilian Labour Party.

In the order, Moraes considered that preventive detention is justified by the offenses of defamation, slander, libel, incitement to commit a crime, an apology for crime, criminal association, and slanderous accusation.

In his decision, Moraes listed several posts by the accused on social networks. Jefferson has said that the STF is determined to bring Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s PT back to the presidency and that the only way out would be the intervention of the armed forces. That is why, the former parliamentarian said, STF Justices are against the printed ballot.

“The elections are rigged. They don’t want the vote to be published or printed…because they don’t want public control,” Roberto Jefferson said in one of his publications.

The STF Justice stated that “the Federal Constitution does not allow the dissemination of ideas contrary to the constitutional order and the democratic state, nor does it allow the holding of demonstrations on social networks to break the rule of law.”

The request for arrest came from the Federal Police, which established Roberto Jefferson’s involvement in attacks on Supreme Court Justices.