President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sanctioned, with vetoes, the law that reduces the ineligibility period provided for in Clean Record Law (Law 134/2010). Now politicians sentenced to ineligibility are prohibited from competing for elections for a maximum of 8 years from the conviction. The new law still limits to 12 years the maximum deadline that politicians may be without election in the case of convictions in multiple processes.
The project also prohibits the possibility of more than one conviction for ineligibility in the case of actions filed by related facts. The 8 -year period will be counted from:
- the decision that decrees the loss of the mandate;
- of the election in which abusive practice occurred;
- the condemnation by collegiate body; or
- of renunciation of the elective position.
In practice, new deadlines reduce the time of loss of political rights.
Currently, in the case of lower electoral offenses or administrative misconduct, ineligibility lasts throughout the term and 8 years after the end of the term in which the politician was convicted, which may extend for more than 15 years.
The crimes provided for in the Clean Record Law impacted by the change are:
- against the popular economy, the public faith and the public patrimony;
- against private equity, the financial system, the capital market and those provided for in the law that regulates bankruptcy;
- against the environment and public health;
- Electoral, for which the law ends the deprivation of liberty; and
- abuse of authority, in cases where there is condemnation of the loss of office or disqualification for the exercise of civil service.
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For more serious crimes and crimes against public administration, it is worth the current rule. In it, the 8 -year ineligibility period begins from the end of serving the sentence.
These crimes include money laundering or concealment of goods, rights and values; of drug trafficking and related drugs, racism, torture, terrorism and heinous; reduction to the condition analogous to that of slave; against life and sexual dignity; and practiced by criminal organization, gang or gang.
Veto
Lula vetoed provisions of the project that allowed to retroact with the rule for politicians already convicted by the Clean Record Law, reducing the ineligibility period in force today. The Planalto Palace justified that this change would violate the principle of legal certainty by relativizing the res judicata.
According to the Executive, the change would allow that judicial decisions be “faded” by the new legislation. The government also cited a decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on the subject 1199 of general repercussion, with effects on the entire judiciary.
“Among the principles of beneficial retroactivity and administrative morality, the Court conferred primacy to the latter, reaffirming the rule of non -retroactivity,” said the presidency. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) and the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) requested the vetoes carried out by President Lula.
In addition, for the government, the vetoed changes would violate the principle of legal certainty.
“Respect for the res judicata is indispensable to legal certainty and institutional stability, and should not be relativized by an infraconstitutional rule, under penalty of incurring unconstitutionality,” said the Planalto.
Vetoes still need to be analyzed by the National Congress, which can maintain or overthrow the changes made by the executive.
Understand
The project was approved in the House and Senate on the grounds that ineligibility could not be over time and that it was only dependent on the decision of the magistrate responsible for the case.
Until then, the period of ineligibility varied according to the process in the judiciary and could extend for more than 15 years. However, the new rule that unifies the deadline in eight years of ineligibility applies to lower severity or administrative misconduct.
