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The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided, by 5 to 2, that politicians declared “dirty cards” for abuses in the 2012 electoral campaign could stand in the municipal elections this year. They would not be eligible for the original date of the election, the first Sunday in October, but benefited from the postponement of the date due to the pandemic.
This is because the eight-year ineligibility period, provided for in the legislation for convictions for abuse of political and economic power in the campaign, begins to run from the date of the elections, which was October 7 that year. In 2020, the elections would fall on the 4th, so these politicians still could not compete.
The plenary session analyzed a query filed by Deputy Célio Studard (PV-CE), whose legal team includes the jurist Márlon Reis, one of the creators and writers of the Law to Clean the Registry. The parliamentarian questioned the Court whether postponing the date of the elections would consequently extend the period of ineligibility.
Most of the ministers understood that the end of this period can not be relaxed. The ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Mauro Campbell, Tarcisio Vieira, Sergio Banhos and Luís Roberto Barroso voted on the matter. According to them, for this to happen it was necessary to have a provision in the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) sent to the National Congress.
“It was not up to those ineligible to change the date of the elections. We cannot interpret it extensively, expanding the restrictions,” said Moraes, whose vote led to the outcome of the trial. “I do not see how to give interpretive elasticity to expand the restrictions on rights to a scenario that did not seek the amendment,” Cambpell voted next.
Barroso recalled that it would be detrimental to set a change in the ineligibility periods after the electoral process has already begun: there are already more than 300 party conventions registered in the TSE. Tarcisio pointed out that the technical area of the court, in an opinion, says that it had considered taking this issue to Congress, with, finally, the option not to do so.
Ministers Edson Fachin, rapporteur of the consultation, and Luis Felipe Salomão were defeated. For them, the temporary modification of the 2020 elections should have similar effects on the period of ineligibility, postponing them in the same way.
The unexpected delay in the event should not impact the general cadre of qualified actors, both because of the lack of express authorization from the Constituent Assembly, and because, from the random resurrection of the disabled, a direct affront to the expectations that delimit the purposes of the entire electoral system. Fachin said.
Along the same lines, Salomão affirmed that allowing the presentation of dirty records “opens the gap to allow, in future claims, the casuistic change of dates, putting at risk the achievements derived from the Clean Registry Law.”
