- Former President Bolsonaro barred from running for office for 8 years
- Bolsonaro found guilty of undermining Brazilian democracy
- Bolsonaro’s response and potential appeals after the verdict
The Supreme Electoral Court of Brazil has voted 5 to 2 to bar former president Jair Bolsonaro from contending for office for the next eight years.
Mr. Bolsonaro was judged guilty of abusing his authority before the 2016 presidential election.
He was accused of undermining Brazilian democracy by asserting falsely that the used electronic ballots were susceptible to hacking and fraud.
The attorneys for Mr. Bolsonaro are anticipated to appeal the verdict.
They contend that his statements did not affect the election outcome.
The moratorium is retroactive to the presidential election date of 2 October 2022.
If the verdict is upheld, Mr. Bolsonaro will be ineligible to compete in the 2026 presidential election, but he will be eligible to run again in 2030.
In addition, he will be disqualified from municipal elections in 2024 and 2028.
Bolsonaro called the decision a “stab in the back” and vowed to advance right-wing politics in Brazil.
The case against the ex-president centered on a speech he delivered in 2022 while he was still president.
On 18 July, he invited foreign diplomats to his residence in Brasilia’s capital, where he falsely claimed that Brazil’s electronic voting machines were vulnerable to hacking and susceptible to widespread fraud.
Mr. Bolsonaro claimed that he “simply explained how elections work in Brazil” without criticising the electoral process.
However, the speech occurred amid a divisive presidential campaign in which Mr. Bolsonaro was challenged for the top position by his archrival, the far-left Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lula won the election by a razor-thin margin in a runoff held on October 30 after a bitterly contested election.
Mr. Bolsonaro never publicly conceded defeat and fled Brazil for Florida two days before Lula’s inauguration as president.
His supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court on January 8 to protest the election results.
