Bolsonaro Barred From Political Office For 8 Years (Subject To Appeal)

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court has barred former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for political office for a period of eight years for bringing the integrity of the country's voting systems into disrepute. The ruling, effective from the 2022 election that he lost to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will mean Bolsonaro cannot run for the presidency in 2026, but will be allowed to run in 2030.

• Bolsonaro's lawyer confirmed before the ruling that he would launch an appeal at the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro on 29 June implied that he expected the ruling to go against him, stating “It’s unfair to me, for God’s sake...Show me something concrete that I did against democracy. I played within the bounds of the Constitution the whole time.”
• WaPo: "...the panel found, he made false claims about the voting system’s vulnerability to fraud. They say the comments created the environment in which thousands of his supporters stormed the Presidential Palace, Congress and Supreme Court on Jan. 8 in hopes of overturning his election loss."
• Andy Rosati at Bloomberg: "[An appeal is] likely to be a long slog in the Supreme Court. And the names of conservative politicians are already being bandied around to lead the opposition against Lula. Even Bolsonaro suggested his wife as a possible successor this week.