Lula da Silva’s coalition asks electoral court TSE to rule Bolsonaro ineligible
The coalition that helped elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, progressive-globalist) presented on Thursday (Dec. 8) two actions in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) asking for the ineligibility of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL, right).
In one of the actions, Lula da Silva’s campaign asked that Bolsonaro and his running mate, General Walter Braga Netto, be investigated for alleged political and economic power abuse.
The lawyers argue that the current president used the public machine to launch a “package of kindnesses” to get reelected, such as anticipating the payment of social benefits, reported the portal Jota.
The Brazil of Hope coalition considers that Bolsonaro “granted illegal financial benefits to Brazilian citizens during the election period, with the explicit intention of garnering votes and influencing the choice of Brazilian voters, to hurt the smoothness of the election.
“It is evident, at least, evidence of interference in the 2022 election and lack of isonomy with the other candidates for the presidency of the Republic. And such interference occurs through abuse of political and economic power,” says the document.
The other lawsuit targets Bolsonaro, Braga Netto, and allies like deputies Carla Zambelli and Bia Kicis, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, Senator-elect Magno Malta, Congressman-elect Nikolas Ferreira, and businessman Gustavo Gayer, who was elected to federal Congress.
In this lawsuit, Lula da Silva’s campaign asks for the group to be investigated for possible electoral crimes for questioning the smoothness of the electoral system on social networks.
“This is not an accusation about speeches attacking the system in place. It will be demonstrated and proven that the investigated, mainly Jair Messias Bolsonaro, sought to implement, for a long time, a totalitarian and autocratic power project from the corrosion of the existential matrix of Brazilian democracy, namely, the free exercise of the direct vote, free and conscious, through the deterioration of the Brazilian electoral system,” says the petition.
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This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief