Missão tells Toffoli that decision delaying Renan Santos candidacy ruling is ‘null’

Brazil’s Missão party has challenged Justice Dias Toffoli’s decision to remove Renan Santos’s presidential candidacy from the Superior Electoral Court’s agenda, calling the decision “null.”

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The decision is null because the reporting justice cannot, with all due respect, examine alleged irregularities in election advertising on his own initiative in a candidacy-registration case, which is not even theoretically intended to examine the issues raised.

Toffoli postponed the case one day after Santos and his running mate, Aroldo Medina, were due to have their registration reviewed by the court. The justice cited alleged irregularities in information submitted about the candidate’s social media accounts, but his order did not specify what those irregularities were.

The party’s lawyers argued that a candidacy-registration case could not be used by the reporting justice to raise suspected problems in online election advertising on his own initiative. They said the registration requirements had been met and that there was no legal basis to block approval over information involving social media.

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There is a problem at the Superior Electoral Court with the social media registration of all candidates.

Santos defended his campaign in a video, saying the issue affected the social media registration of all candidates and involved a longstanding problem with the court’s system. He said his accounts had been registered but that officials were trying to classify his campaign as abusing economic power.

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A system problem that has involved the Superior Electoral Court for a long time.

Santos submitted his candidacy registration on August 7. On August 19, he and Medina added information stating that they had 18 social media profiles. In reviewing that material, Toffoli cited “indications of unlawful conduct” and possible breaches of electoral law, including rules governing permitted online campaigning.

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Indications of unlawful conduct.