The plenary of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) unanimously confirmed, this Thursday (15), the conviction of the Liberal Party (PL) to pay a fine of almost R$ 23 million for litigation in bad faith. In the appeal, the caption asked the TSE to invalidate the votes, only in the second round, resulting from ballot boxes of the 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 models — which represent almost 60% of the total —, claiming “irreparable malfunctions”. At the trial, the ministers rejected the acronym’s appeal and followed the decision of the President of the Court, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who had already denied the injunction. In Moraes’ understanding, the arguments presented by the party are not capable of reforming the questioned monocratic decision. “In this case, the PL protests only regarding the application of the fine for litigation in bad faith, without sufficient grounds for the retraction judgment”, said the minister. Moraes recalled that the same electronic voting machines, of all models in use, including those before 2020 contested by the PL, were used in both the first and second rounds, making it impossible to dissociate both periods of the same election. According to the minister, even if – by hypothesis – the discussion could be restricted to the second round of elections this year, there would be no reason why the alleged defect or supposed malfunction of electronic voting machines – if it existed – would be discussed only in relation to the elections for president of the Republic, as it should extend, at least, to the elections of governors in the second round and in the same polls. “Thus, the applicant’s deliberate intention to encourage criminal and anti-democratic movements was evident, including the proposal of the flagrantly inappropriate application”, said Moraes. Party Fund To guarantee the payment of the fine, which will have to be made in cash, the TSE also endorsed the immediate blocking of the Party Fund of the PL until the effective payment, with the deposit of the amount in a judicial account. Only Minister Raul Araújo disagreed on the possibility of installments. He defended, without success, that the blocking of resources should be restricted to 30% of the values of the Party Fund, until the caption paid the fine in full, so as not to jeopardize the normality of party activities. Responsibilities To investigate the practice of common and electoral crime with the intention of disturbing the democratic regime, also today the plenary of the TSE supported the sending of an official letter to the Corregedoria-Geral Eleitoral (CGE) to initiate an administrative procedure and determine responsibility for any deviation purpose of using the party structure, including the Party Fund, and especially the conduct of the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, and Carlos César Moretzsohn Rocha, president of the Legal Vote Institute (IVL). Until the closure of this matter, Agência Brasil had not managed to get any manifestation from the PL on the judgment.
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