Why Convicted Former President Lula Showed in Surveys for Presidential Election?

Why Convicted Former President Lula Showed in Surveys for Presidential Election?

Photo: correio.rac.com.br

For the eyes of a foreigner it is out of the rational to understand how a convicted person could run for president as his name was appearing in all political surveys as a candidate.

To better explain that, it is correct to point out that this was all, in fact, a script of a theatrical piece that could only be played due to the institutional gaps that fulfill the Brazilian judiciary system.  

In other words, it’s the gaps co-existing among the timetable of the interpretation of a law and the rule of a normative that makes this scenario possible.

The first true is that Lula cannot run for president in compliance with the country’s Clean Record Law, which bans the candidacy of individuals convicted by an appellate court. He has been in jail since April 7 and was sentenced to 12 years and one month in prison for corruption and money laundering.

The second true is that Lula appeared on the polls only because polling firms had to put him there and this happens because Lula’s Workers’ Party registered him as their candidate.

Better explaining, it was possible to register him as candidate because there is a normative resolution of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court in Brasilia (TSE, acronym in Portuguese), which requires all candidates registered to be put on presidential surveys.

But how the Workers Party got permission to include Lula’s name as a registered candidate? Because this is how things are in Brazil. First you do the wrong, then someone has to call for the wrong and contest his election candidacy to the Electoral Court. The Court will then judge, and if the wrong is proved, then his candidacy will be removed.

By last Thursday, August 30^th, there were more than 15 requests to cancel Lula’s registration as candidate.

Between the lines, the Worker’s Party was counting with the laziness of the Brazilian judiciary system. The most promised schedule for TSE judge the case was the date of September 17. Meanwhile the Worker’s Party want to gain public notoriety that Lula could win the election once more and this enforces their interpretation of coup d'etat.

This scenario was just not confirmed because the court ruled on Friday, August 31^st,  that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cannot run for a third term.

But, would Lula really win the Elections? The first run, definitely. He has been shown with 37% of the electored, i.e. people that votes on him with wrongdoings or not. The second run? Hard to say. There is a great part of the population that rejects to vote on him. Still, it would all depend on the course of the election campaigns over these couple of months to come before election day.  

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