Over 1,800 Barred from Running in Brazil’s General Elections

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Of the 29,101 candidates who requested registration to run in this year’s general elections in Brazil, the country’s Electoral Court rejected 1,888 requests, 6.5 percent, according to data from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

Of those, 173 candidates were deemed ineligible to run for public office because of the Lei da Ficha Limpa (Clean Slate Law), including former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“In our view, the candidate sentenced after his second appeal is already ineligible. You are a candidate whose legal situation is already defined. You cannot run as a candidate (for public office) and cannot be elected,” Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux, who recently left his position as president of the TSE, recently stated.

Lula was found guilty of passive corruption and money laundering and sentenced to more than twelve years in jail. The former president is currently in jail in Curitiba, Parana, and has named Fernando Haddad as his substitute for the PT (Workers Party) presidential ticket.

In the case of former Rio de Janeiro governor, Anthony Garotinho, seeking another term as Rio’s top public official, TSE judge Geraldo Og Niceas Marques Fernandes overturned a regional court decision and is allowing Garotinho to run in the gubernatorial race until his appeal is heard.

Garotinho was found guilty of administrative impropriety, involving the mismanagement of R$234 million earmarked for the health sector.

The main reasons for the rejections of the candidacies, 75.46 percent, include disqualification of political rights due to criminal convictions and lack of party affiliation. Thirteen candidates were considered ineligible due abuse of power and another five due to illicit resource spending.

So far, 682 candidates have given up their candidacies, including former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who announced he was running in the gubernatorial race in the state of Alagoas only to later back down from the race, and three have died.

Correction: This article has been edited since originally published on September 25th, to correct that Curitiba is the capital of the state of Parana.