The end of the semester of the panel of judges will take place on Friday, December 17th. Until then, the High Electoral Court (TSE) can return to the agenda of the process that will determine whether the candidate with the most votes in the 2020 municipal elections, Rubens Bomtempo (PSB), can serve as mayor. This Monday, November 29, is the election year. For nearly 11 months, Petropolis was run by an interim government headed by Councilor Hingo Hammes (DEM), the city council president.

In the 2020 elections, Bomtempo received the most votes out of 13 candidates running for mayor. In the first round, he came out ahead with 39,093 votes, which corresponds to 27.37% of the valid votes. In the second round, he won a dispute with 64,907 votes (55.17% of valid votes) against then-Mayor Bernardo Rossi (Poland).

Bomtempo participated in the first round with the registration of the candidature issued by the District Electoral Court (TRE) in Petropolis. However, the TRE Collegium in Rio de Janeiro denied registration three days before the second round due to a final and non-appealable conviction concerning the mayor’s installment payment of debts by the mayor’s office with the Institute of Social Security for Municipal Employees (Inpas) in the former mayor’s second term.

An appeal could have been filed with the High Electoral Court (TSE), but the case was not heard by the deadline for graduation, December 18, 2020. At the same time, after legal procedures, it was the chairman of the chamber, a member of the council headed by Hingo Hammes, elected by six out of 14 votes.

Bomtempo took office in January in the Rio de Janeiro State Legislature (Alerge). He filled the vacancy left by MP Renan Ferreirinha (PSB), who was appointed Minister of Education of the City of Rio de Janeiro in the government of Eduardo Paez.

Even with many twists and turns, the Bomtempo case is far from over. The case, which is being processed by TSE, still has no date to judge.

A year of many upheavals

This year, the Rubens Bomtempo case has undergone different twists and turns and decisions in different courts. The defense of the current deputy of the state exposed plagiarism in the verdict, which deprived him of political rights, and tried to overturn this verdict in order to restore the right to participate in elections and to decide on the adoption of the decision of the mayor’s office.

Bomtempo filed a cancellation lawsuit before the Court of Justice (TJ-RJ), but the Rio court dismissed the appeal. Bomtempo petitioned the 4th Civil Court to overturn the sentence, and Judge Claudia Weeder of the 4th Civil Court granted the motion in July. In the decision, Wider indicated that 72% of the verdict in which he was found guilty was copied from another trial, against the former mayor of Traiano de Moraes municipality Sergio Eduardo Melo Gomes. Following the decision, the prosecutor’s office appealed, and the decision was soon overturned by the TJRJ Court of Rio de Janeiro.

Despite this, Bomtempo’s defense filed an appeal with the High Electoral Court asking for his inauguration. After four months, the trial ended and was returned from the agenda of the judgment at least three times. The case was heard in August, but Minister Alexandre de Moraes requested an opinion, “suspending” the analysis. The case even returned to the court agenda on November 4, but was again withdrawn.

And amid all these appeals, the new High Court of Justice (STJ) ruling rocked the local political scene. On November 12, STJ President, Minister Humberto Martins suspended the decision of the Rio de Janeiro court barring Bomtempo from taking over as mayor of Petropolis. STJ admitted that the decision stripping them of their political rights contained plagiarism, just as Judge Claudia Wieder rendered the decision in July.

On November 18, Bomtempo’s defense attached the STJ minister’s decision to the TSE process and is awaiting progress, but there is still no date for a new trial. The inauguration of the candidate with the most votes in 2020 now depends solely on the Electoral Court.

The Tribune has asked TSE to be included in the agenda, but there are no forecasts.