Brazilian court rejects Bolsonaro’s election challenge
The country’s top electoral tribunal has ruled that President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is eligible to run for office, clearing one of the first major obstacles to his ascension to power. Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld a ruling in favor of Brazil’s current government.
The country’s top electoral tribunal has ruled that President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is eligible to run for office, clearing one of the first major obstacles to his ascension to power.
Bolsonaro, a lawmaker for more than 30 years, was elected on Sunday after ousting leftist opponent Fernando Haddad in a landslide victory by the country’s middle class.
His victory means an end to months of political discord that paralyzed the nation’s main political institutions, and will make Bolsonaro the most powerful man in the country’s history. He will be sworn in on Jan. 1, when he would have been 74.
Haddad, Bolsonaro’s predecessor, was widely considered the country’s most likely successor. But he was unable to win a majority in Congress and, eventually, the governorship of Para.
“Today, we are truly democratic Brazil, a democracy of law,” Bolsonaro said in his victory speech.
The ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court clears one of the first major obstacles to Bolsonaro’s ascension to power.
Bolsonaro will replace former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who ruled Brazil for 12 years until he was imprisoned last year and charged with fraud for allegedly receiving bribes during his time as government minister. Many observers feared his detention would force him out of office.
Bolsonaro, a former journalist who never held elected office before, was the clear favorite in Brazil’s top electoral tribunal, which upheld his candidacy as “legally eligible.” He now turns his attention to the next major decision.
“When we are able to have a president who can deliver and to have a legislature that supports that