Brazil: Thiago Pampolha is new vice-governor candidate on Claudio Castro’s ticket in Rio

Five days after the Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRE-RJ) rejected the registration of the candidacy of Washington Reis (MDB) as vice-governor, the slate of Claudio Castro (Liberal Party – PL) defined the name of state deputy Thiago Pampolha (União Brasil) as the new coalition partner.

Pampolha is in his third term as state deputy. In the first legislature, in 2010, he became the youngest congressman in the history of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj).

In 2017, he took over the State Secretariat of Sports, Leisure, and Youth.

In November 2020, TV Globo showed that Pampolha’s family-owned 42 gas stations. Nine of the establishments had already been fined by the State Environment Institute (Inea) for irregularities – and two of the notified ones belonged to the secretary himself.

Among the failures were the lack of a license to use water, lack of documentation, and failure to comply with the rules for the discharge of water and oil.

At the time, Pampolha said that he would “never stop inspecting any establishment” and that he was “facing bureaucratic obstacles” to normalizing the stations.

In the biography available on his page at Alerj, it is said that “Thiago has as the basis of everything the family, the Christian precepts and transparency in public service” and “commitment and respect with the appreciation of life, the environment and the defense of Human Dignity”.

WASHINGTON REIS INELIGIBLE

Announced on June 29 as a candidate for vice-governor on Claudio Castro’s ticket, the former mayor of Duque de Caxias Washington Reis represented the union of the PL and the MDB in the election for governor of Rio de Janeiro.

However, Reis’ name on the slate didn’t last long. Last Tuesday, September 6, seven judges of the TRE-RJ voted unanimously to reject the registration of the candidacy of Washington Reis as vice-governor.

Reis was convicted in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for environmental crime and irregular allotment when he was mayor of Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense, which put him in the Ficha Limpa law, making him ineligible.

Last week, an appeal by the former mayor was analyzed by the Second Panel of the STF, which formed a majority to maintain the conviction.

With this decision, the TRE-RJ judges understood that a candidate with a dirty record could not run for any election.

On Friday, Reis submitted his resignation as deputy governor.

With information from G1