Court votes to ban Brazil’s Bolsonaro from running for office for 8 years

The top Brazilian elections court has voted to ban former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro from office for eight years after finding that he abused his power while president. 

Four of the seven members of the court voted that Bolsonaro, who served as the president of Brazil for four years before losing reelection in 2022, abused his power by using government communication channels to campaign and spread doubts about the validity of the election results. One of the members voted against the majority ruling, while two had not submitted their votes as of early Friday afternoon. 

Bolsonaro will be able to appeal the ruling to the Brazilian Supreme Court, but if the court upholds the ruling, the former president will be barred from running for office until 2030, when he will be 75 years old. 

The case against Bolsonaro centered around a meeting he held in July 2022 in which he used state television, government staff members and the presidential palace to tell foreign ambassadors that Brazil’s electoral system was rigged. 

Judge Carmen Lucia provided the deciding vote that clinched the election court’s ruling against Bolsonaro. She said the facts of what happened are “incontrovertible.” 

“The meeting did take place. 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,” Lucia ruled. 

Bolsonaro declared that the ruling was an “injustice” against him. 

“Show me something concrete I have done against democracy,” he told reporters. “Perhaps my crime was doing the right thing for four years.” 

The Washington Post reported that Bolsonaro’s attorney, Tarcísio Vieira de Carvalho, said before the ruling was handed down that they would appeal to the top court in the country. 

The ruling against Bolsonaro marks the first time in Brazilian history that a former president has been suspended from running for office for an elections-related violation. He is also facing additional legal issues, including criminal probes. 

The Post reported that Bolsonaro’s comments and actions led to his supporters storming Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace on Jan. 8 in a situation that drew comparisons from observers to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol in the United States. 

Bolsonaro narrowly lost a runoff election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last year but refused to concede the race. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.