TSE keeps Arruda off ballot as dispute turns on eligibility clock

TSE keeps Arruda off ballot as dispute turns on eligibility clock
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) voted 5-2 to uphold the refusal to register former Federal District governor José Roberto Arruda as a candidate for governor, ending his status as a candidate whose participation was pending appeal. The court ordered the regional electoral tribunal to remove his name from the ballot process immediately.

The majority, led by Justice Dias Toffoli and joined by four colleagues, rejected Arruda’s appeal over administrative-improbity convictions tied to Operation Caixa de Pandora, an investigation into alleged bribery in district government IT contracts. Toffoli concluded that, regardless of competing readings of the revised eligibility rules, “a more recent conviction” on its own was enough to maintain the bar on Arruda’s candidacy.

Prosecutors argued that the convictions stemmed from separate facts, making the longer 12-year ceiling applicable. On that calculation, beginning with a still-valid 2018 ruling, Arruda would remain ineligible until 2030. The decision also prevents him from continuing to campaign under the pending-candidacy status and, according to a separate account, cuts off access to campaign funds.

Arruda’s defense took the opposite view: the cases were connected and should be combined under an eight-year limit introduced by a 2025 amendment to the Clean Record Law. Lawyers also argued that the clock should run from the first conviction in 2014, which would have allowed him to contest this year’s election.

The two dissenters, Justices Floriano de Azevedo Marques and Estela Aranha, favored approving the registration. Floriano said his position was not “tolerance with irregularities,” but an interpretation of the newer legislation governing how disqualification periods are calculated. Even under the more favorable eight-year approach cited by prosecutors, however, the restriction would expire only in December—after the first round.

https://brazil-test-hub.syndichain.com Brazil News Hub brazil-test-hub brazil-test-hub