In the midst of the fiercest presidential dispute of redemocratization, the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), under the command of minister Kassio Nunes Marques, shifted the focus of the crisis in the Judiciary to itself and assumed a leading role in the final stretch of the elections. The second round voting takes place this Sunday (25).
From the beginning of the campaign, on August 16, until the first round, on the 4th, the electoral court had remained overshadowed for most of the time by the internal disputes that took place in the STF (Supreme Federal Court) as a result of the Banco Master scandal, run by Daniel Vorcaro.
Until then, members of the campaigns of President Lula (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) had classified the TSE's performance as balanced. There were reservations only to some decisions, such as the order from minister Estela Aranha that benefited the PT member and prohibited TV Globo from showing its empty pulpit during the debate – which was later cancelled.
A Folha survey published after the first round, for example, showed that the court presided over by Kassio, appointed by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), gave more victories to Lula than to Flávio Bolsonaro in the period.
In the second stage of the election, however, the legal dispute between the campaigns took on new contours, and the TSE became the focus of friction between the ministers themselves and the campaigns of the presidential candidates. The court was also faced with accusations from Lula and Flávio's teams that big tech, especially Meta, was favoring one candidate or the other.
Part of the controversial decisions were taken in relation to the "Lula's Army" channel on WhatsApp, coordinated by federal deputy André Janones (Rede-MG), who was responsible for expanding the current president's digital troops. The group, which had around 2 million subscribers until October 7th and now has 10 million, became the target of the legal team led by former minister Maria Cláudia Bucchianeri and was even assisted by Kassio.
The removal of the channel from the air opened a war of decisions on the issue. This is because, before Kassio suspended the group, the electoral inspector general, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, had already denied the measure. Cueva then made a new decision reestablishing the channel, which was once again reversed by Kassio.
After the censorship, the president of the TSE determined that the channel could only resume operation if it was registered in court by Lula's team.
The PT member did so, but the group would only return to the air 48 hours later. The resumption was anticipated by the minister after Lula's campaign asked the electoral court to treat the channel "Tropa do Flávio" equally and to remove it from the air for the same period.
This Friday (23), a third minister, Floriano de Azevedo Marques, was involved in the case. He determined that a possible new overthrow of "Lula's Army" could only be analyzed by the court's plenary. The decision was made on a preventive basis, following a request from the PT campaign, which feared a new attack by Kassio.
A draft resolution also began circulating within the TSE to block all WhatsApp channels with more than 200,000 users in the 48 hours before the election, which would affect "Lula's Army". The draft was endorsed by Kassio and André Mendonça, vice-president of the court.
The leak of information caused discomfort even in Mendonça, the court president's main ally. In the current composition, the two and Dias Toffoli have been aligned. Bôas Cueva, Sebastião dos Reis Júnior, Floriano de Azevedo Marques and Estela Aranha also join the court.
According to Folha, Kassio's conduct caught the attention of other members of the collegiate, advisors and campaigns, who see a stance that is disproportionate to the position. The assessment within the court is that the magistrate abandoned the idea of a "self-contained" TSE, as he promised when he took office as president in May.
To assistants, Kassio indicated that he would avoid activating the court's police power. The speech, however, did not become reality. Still in the first round, he was linked to controversial decisions, such as the suspension of the publication of the Atlas/Bloomberg survey that showed a drop in Flávio's voting intentions.
However, the climate within the court at the time was still one of consensus, especially in an attempt to give legitimacy to decisions, taken in a collegial manner. Now, the feeling within the court, say interlocutors, is that all efforts at the beginning of the campaign to avoid an interventionist TSE would have gone "down the drain".
The concern of other members of the TSE regarding the president's stance led to dialogues with Supreme Court judges. The reading is that caution would be necessary before reversing the electoral court's orders — at the risk of alleging STF interference in the elections. This fear led the Supreme Court to leave the scene in the second round.
In addition to the presidential dispute, the organization of the second phase of the elections also generated noise. One week before voting, the TSE changed the voting locations of 402,600 voters. As the minister said in Tuesday's session (20), this type of change is normal, mainly for climate reasons.
The judges' assessment, however, is that the president would not have given the necessary attention to this type of measure, which meant that it was communicated to the population late and with inaccuracies.
The volume of actions filed by Lula and Flávio's teams, which totaled 470 cases up to the date of the first round, also increased throughout the race. On October 12 alone, for example, at least 42 lawsuits were filed in court.
Flávio's legal team focused on requests to remove content that state that, if elected, the senator should end several social programs, such as Farmácia Popular and Bolsa Família. Kassio, in fact, has already given a favorable decision to Jair Bolsonaro's son in similar cases, such as when he took down a publication by the first lady, Janja, which spoke of a supposed cut in social actions.
The focus of Lula's campaign, in addition to trying to keep his platforms and campaign pieces active, has been to accuse Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, of unequal treatment.
According to the president's lawyers, the company's social networks were failing, "repeatedly and systematically", to deliver the PT member's posts. The defense accused the company of trying to interfere in the Brazilian elections by harming Lula's publications.
As revealed by Folha, in internal messages from Meta, company employees admit restrictions that harmed Lula's Instagram accounts and say that there was an algorithmic recommendation of Flávio's profile on the platform and on the candidate's WhatsApp channel, a practice prohibited by the TSE.
In a statement released on the 16th, Meta stated that it is not interfering in the Brazilian elections and said that the episodes reported in Folha's report were "technical incidents".
WEAR WITH MASTER
In addition to his performance in court, Kassio's image was also damaged by revelations linking him to Daniel Vorcaro. This week, Piauí magazine showed that the owner of Master paid for and promoted in a triplex in Itaim Bibi, in the west zone of São Paulo, a party with call girls for the minister in February 2025.
