TSE mantém inelegibilidade de Castro e abre caminho para STF decidir sobre eleições no Rio

The Electoral Court of Brazil has closed one door while opening another. On a 5-to-2 vote, the court's ministers rejected appeals from two powerful Rio de Janeiro figures—former governor Ibaneis Rocha Castro and Rodrigo Bacellar, who once led the state legislature—and upheld their ineligibility for electoral crimes. The decision, handed down in early June, confirms what the court had already determined: both men illegally orchestrated the hiring of tens of thousands of temporary workers to function as campaign operatives during the 2022 elections.

The scale of the scheme was staggering. Castro and Bacellar arranged for roughly 27,500 people to be hired through the state's statistics and public servant training center, the Ceperj, explicitly to work as campaign foot soldiers. Another 18,000 irregular hires occurred at the state university, the Uerj, for the same purpose. When the Electoral Court initially condemned them, both men fought back, arguing their defense had been incomplete and that procedural flaws had tainted the judgment. The Electoral Public Ministry also filed an appeal, claiming the court's written decision contained contradictions about whether Castro's diploma—a technical distinction from his mandate—had actually been revoked.

Minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, who handled the appeals, found no merit in any of these arguments. He determined that only three judges had voted to revoke Castro's diploma, which meant there was no majority on that specific point. To include it in the final ruling would be to attribute a conclusion to the court that the judges had never actually reached. Cueva was joined by four colleagues—André Mendonça, Dias Toffoli, Antonio Carlos Ferreira, and Kássio Nunes Marques—in this reasoning. Two judges, Estela Aranha and Floriano de Azevedo Marques, disagreed, believing the diploma revocation had indeed secured a majority. Cármen Lúcia's position on the diploma question remained ambiguous in the record.

But the Electoral Court's decision is only half the story. The real power now rests with Brazil's Supreme Court, which must resolve a succession crisis that has paralyzed Rio's government. Castro resigned as governor on March 23, the day before the Electoral Court was set to rule on his fate. The former vice-governor, Thiago Pampolha, had already left office the previous year to take a position at the state's Court of Accounts. That left Rodrigo Bacellar as the next in line—but he was disqualified in the same Electoral Court action. Now, with a dual vacancy in the executive branch, Rio needs an interim governor to serve out the remainder of the current term.

The Supreme Court faces a narrow but consequential question: should Rio's interim governor be chosen through a direct popular election, or should state legislators vote to select one? The answer hinges on a technical distinction. Direct elections are permitted only when a dual vacancy results from an electoral cause—such as a cassation for electoral crimes. Castro's resignation, however, is not considered an electoral cause. If the court treats the vacancy as stemming primarily from resignation rather than from the electoral disqualifications, it could justify an indirect election by legislators instead.

As of early June, the Supreme Court had already received four votes favoring an indirect election and one for a direct vote. Minister Flávio Dino requested additional time to study the matter and indicated he would wait for the Electoral Court's final decision before proceeding. With that decision now rendered, the expectation is that the Supreme Court will resume its deliberations and finally unlock the succession process. Until then, Ricardo Couto, the president of Rio's state court system, continues to serve as interim chief executive—a temporary arrangement that has stretched on far longer than anyone anticipated.