The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided today (25), by 4 votes to 3, to cancel the mandate of federal deputy Evandro Roman (Patriotas-PR), for party infidelity. The decision takes effect immediately.
Evandro Roman holds the position as first alternate since February 2019. Later that year, he changed his acronym, from PSD to Patriota, for which he was a candidate for mayor of Cascavel (PR) in 2020 and of which he became director of Paraná.
Shortly after the exchange, three other deputy federal deputies – Reinhold Stephanes Junior, Edmar de Souza Arruda and Hidekazu Takayama – sued the TSE alleging that Roman’s disaffiliation from the PSD was carried out without any just cause provided for in the legislation.
In his defense, Roman claimed that his departure from the PSD was amicable, in common agreement with the board of the acronym, which is why there would have been no infidelity. He submitted a letter of consent from the party for his disaffiliation.
The majority of TSE ministers, however, decided that a letter of consent is not enough to ward off party infidelity and consequent loss of mandate.
In the winning chain, minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the Electoral Court, said that accepting this type of document would be “an undesirable flexibilization of this important institute that is party loyalty”.
In addition to Barroso, the ministers Tarcísio Vieira, Sergio Banhos and Edson Fachin, rapporteur of the process, voted in this regard, who considered the letter of consent without any legal effect.
Ministers Mauro Campbell, Luís Felipe Salomão and Alexandre de Moraes disagreed, for whom the letter of consent could be accepted as a just cause of disaffiliation, as long as there was no “collusion between the parties involved to defraud the popular will”.
Party infidelity, with consequent loss of mandate, was introduced in 2015 in the Organic Law on Political Parties (Law 9096/1995). The provision foresees only two hypotheses as just cause for the change of party, the substantial change or repeated deviation from the party program and the serious personal political discrimination.
There is also a window in which parliamentarians can change their initials, the so-called party window, which opens in the 30 days prior to the membership deadline to compete in a majority or proportional election.
another case
The TSE also judged on Thursday another case of party infidelity. Deputy Marlon Santos (PDT-RS), who asked for the just cause of personal political discrimination to be declared so that he could change the initials.
The congressman claimed to have received public reprimands and to have responded to an internal administrative process for having voted in 2019 in favor of the Social Security reform, a proposal which the PDT was opposed at the time.
The request was denied, by majority, by the TSE. The understanding of minister Roberto Barroso, rapporteur of the case, prevailed, according to which the congressman may be the target of reprimands and sanctions from the party for having voted against the bench’s orientation, without this representing personal discrimination.
“Especially because there was no political adjustment in relation to him that would indicate the possibility that he would not be subject to the guidance of the bench”, argued Barroso. According to the minister, in order to vote against the subtitle’s orientation, the congressman must demonstrate that there is some prior commitment of the acronym that authorizes the behavior.
Once again, minister Alexandre de Moraes diverged, and the vote was lost. For the minister, it is not possible to allow the punishment of parliamentarians only for voting differently, and that constitutes just cause for changing the initials if this occurs. “I understand that the congressman is not a slave to the party”, he said.
