Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro was barred Friday from running for office again until 2030 after a panel of judges concluded he had abused his power and cast unfounded doubt on the country’s electronic voting system. country.
The decision raises the political future of the 68-year-old and likely erases any chance for him to regain power.
Five judges at the country’s highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro used government communication channels to promote his campaign and sow distrust in the vote. Two judges voted against the move.
“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “After that, he will try to stay out of jail, elect some of his allies to preserve his political capital, but it is unlikely that he will return to the presidency.”
The case focuses on a meeting on July 18, 2022, where Bolsonaro used government staff, the state television channel and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
In her decisive majority-forming vote, Judge Carmen Lucia — who is also a Supreme Court justice — said “the facts are indisputable.”
“The meeting did happen. It was convened by the then-president. Its content is available. It was examined by everyone, and there was never a denial that it did happen,” she said.
Alexandre de Moraes, also a Supreme Court justice, said the decision represented a rejection of “populism reborn from the flames of hate, antidemocratic rhetoric that promotes vile disinformation.”
Speaking to reporters in Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro lamented that the trial was unfair and politically motivated.
“We’re going to talk with the lawyer. Life goes on,” he said when asked what his next step would be. He called the ruling an attack on Brazilian democracy. “It’s a pretty difficult moment.”
Melo said the decision is “very unlikely” to be overturned. This removed Bolsonaro from the 2024 and 2028 municipal elections as well as the 2026 general elections. The former president is also facing other legal problems, including criminal investigations. Future criminal convictions could extend his ban by years and subject him to prison.
Former President Fernando Collor de Mello and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been impeached in the past, but Bolsonaro’s case marks the first time a president has been suspended for election violations rather than a criminal offense. Brazilian law prohibits candidates with criminal convictions from running for office.
Lula’s eligibility was reinstated by Brazil’s highest court following rulings by then-and-now judge Sen. Sergio Moro was biased when he sentenced the leftist leader to almost 10 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
Maria Maris, a 58-year-old engineer in Rio de Janeiro, celebrated the decision, although she said she suspected it may have been politically motivated.
“My fear is that Bolsonaro will appeal and run in the next presidential election, even if he is disqualified now,” Maris said.
Bolsonaro holds a ceremonial leadership role within his Liberal Party and has toured Brazil criticizing Lula, who won last October’s election by the narrowest margin in more than three decades.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings on January 8 — a week after Lula took office — in an attempt to oust the leftist from power. The rapid detention and prosecution of hundreds of participants had a profound effect on their rejection of the election results. Federal police are investigating Bolsonaro’s role in inciting the uprising; he denied any wrongdoing.
The chairwoman of Lula’s Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, said on her social media channels that Bolsonaro’s disqualification offered a teachable moment.
“The far right needs to know that the political struggle takes place within the democratic process, and not with violence and the threat of a coup,” he said. Bolsonaro “will lose the game because he does not respect the rules. Not only him, his whole group of coup mongers will have to follow the same path.”
The trial has re-energized Bolsonaro’s base online, with supporters saying he is the victim of an unfair judicial system and comparing his fate to that of former US President Donald Trump, according to Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that monitors social media.
However, that engagement pales in comparison to the levels seen before last year’s polarizing election.
The expression of Katia Caminha, a 67-year-old retiree in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood, crumbled when she heard the news that the majority of judges had voted against Bolsonaro. He told The Associated Press that he thought the whole ordeal was a “clown show.”
“Everything that has to do with the electoral court is biased and against” Bolsonaro. “This is terrible news for Brazil,” Caminha said.
This week, his supporters showed their continued support with contributions to help him pay 1.1 million reais (about $230,000) in fines imposed by the Sao Paulo state government for Bolsonaro’s repeated violations on health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Bolsonaro aims to be the kingmaker of the right, and his endorsement will carry significant weight, his decision to decamp to Florida for a few months at the start of Lula’s term has weakened him, said by Thomas Traumann, a political analyst. Limited right-wing outrage on social media throughout the eligibility test reflected that, and there was no sign of protests.
“There won’t be a mass movement, because he has shrunk. The fact that he went to Florida and didn’t lead the opposition made him shrunk,” Traumann said. “The leader of the opposition is clearly not Bolsonaro.”
As the trial drew to a close, a trumpeter standing outside the electoral court played the song that became a sensation in last year’s presidential race: “It is Time for Jair to Go Away.”