The Brazilian Prosecutor's Office asks to politically disqualify Bolsonaro for eight years

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, at an event in Miami on February 3. MARCO BELLO (REUTERS)

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is a little closer to being out of politics, at least for a long time.

The Public Electoral Ministry of Brazil, a kind of Prosecutor's Office for electoral matters, has asked that the justice system disqualify him for eight years, understanding that he committed an abuse of power by criticizing electronic voting in a controversial meeting with ambassadors last year, when he was still he was president.

It was July 2022 and Brazil was experiencing the pre-campaign, when Bolsonaro summoned dozens of ambassadors from various countries to alert them about the supposed danger posed by electronic ballot boxes – which have been used in Brazil for more than 20 years.

The former president spent all the months prior to the electoral appointment attacking that electronic system and warning his followers that if they maintained it, the elections would not be safe.

This thesis served as a basis for him not to openly acknowledge his defeat against the current president, Luiz Inácio

da Silva.

One of the parties that was then in opposition, the Partido Democrático Trabalhista (PDT), denounced the act with the ambassadors and now the Prosecutor's Office agrees.

In the indictment, the party argued that Bolsonaro used the structure of his official residence, the Palacio de la Alvorada in Brasilia, to attack the integrity of the electoral system.

In addition, the act was broadcast by the state-owned Brazilian Communication Company (EBC), which would reinforce the idea that the far-right leader abused his position as president to propagate his conspiracy theory.

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