The lawyers representing the former mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes (PSD) met this Tuesday afternoon (10) with minister Cristiano Zanin, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), to once again defend the holding of a second round in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
In the first round of this year's elections, on October 4, the dispute ended with the second round between Paes and Douglas Ruas, president of Alerj (Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro). However, the votes given to former governor Anthony Garotinho (Republicans) were annulled and, with the new count, Ruas now had 51% of the valid votes, becoming the governor elected in the first round.
In the race, Garotinho ran sub judice, that is, his candidacy still depended on the opinion of the Federal Court. After the results of the first round, the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) ordered the annulment of the former governor's votes.
In response, lawyers from the PSD, Paes' party, sued the Supreme Court. In the action, the party requests a preliminary (provisional) decision to suspend the effects of the TSE's determination and call the second round of the election for the Guanabara Palace.
The action's rapporteur is minister Cristiano Zanin, who had already rejected on a previous occasion an appeal filed against the Electoral Court's decision to consider the votes given to Garotinho null and void. When denying the appeal, the judge considered that the STF could not yet act on the case, as the possibilities of appeals to the TSE itself had not yet been exhausted.
After the meeting with the minister this Tuesday, lawyers Felipe Santa Cruz and Gustavo Schmidt spoke to journalists on the way out. According to them, the minister has not yet given any indication of how he will analyze the case. The defense's expectation, however, is that the discussion will be resolved in the court's plenary, and not by an injunction.
"I understand that it would be up to the Supreme Court to pacify this matter. The vote that was annulled by Garotinho is not a null vote. Whoever voted for Garotinho wants to participate in the election", stated Santa Cruz, who added that the STF can give Rio the chance to no longer be the "state of improvisation".
For Schmidt, what is under debate is not the interests of one candidate or another, but the democratic heritage of the citizens of Rio de Janeiro. The lawyers agreed that the ideal scenario would be a decision by the STF later this year.
Earlier, Ruas mocked the PSD's action in the Supreme Court. The elected governor stated that, by annulling Garotinho's votes, the TSE had responded to a request from the party itself: "The TSE responded to the PSD and annulled Garotinho's votes. It is the first time in history that we have seen someone go to court to obtain a victory and appeal the victory", he declared.
The TSE decided to annul Garotinho's votes after denying the former governor's appeal against the rejection of his candidacy registration at the TRE-RJ. The veto on registration was requested by the Electoral Prosecutor's Office and the Paes coalition.
Two days before the first round, Paes' coalition called for urgency in judging Garotinho's appeal to the TSE. There is no express request to cancel votes. However, an excerpt from the document indicates that invalidation after the first round was also the understanding of the PSD campaign.
