Network asks the STF to suspend changes to the Clean Record Law until the conclusion of the trial

Rede Sustentabilidade requested the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to immediately suspend the changes promoted by the National Congress in the Clean Record Law until the Court completes its judgment on the validity of the new rules for electoral processes.

The request was presented after minister Gilmar Mendes requested a review of the process this Thursday, 28th, which interrupts the analysis for up to 90 days, and addressed to the rapporteur, minister Cármen Lúcia. The party asks that, if it does not want to decide on the suspension in a monocratic way, it urgently takes the case to the plenary for consideration.

The objective, says the document, is “to prevent the legal regime already qualified by the Rapporteur as potentially incompatible with the Constitution from continuing to take effect during the most sensitive phase of preparation for the 2026 general elections”.

The action in the STF is filed by the Network and discusses a complementary law approved by Congress last year, which modified the counting of the period of ineligibility under the Clean Record Law.

Under the new rule, the period is now counted from the moment of conviction, and no longer after serving the sentence, which reduces the time in which convicted politicians are prevented from contesting elections.

In the petition, the Network argues that the uncertainty regarding the validity of the changes in the law may generate doubts about who are the candidates capable of participating in the election.

“When the conventions take place, the parties will need to know who can compete. When the records are filed, the Electoral Court will need to know which causes of ineligibility actually exist. When voters are called upon to choose their representatives, will the constitutional definition of the matter already need to be stabilized?”, states the document.

Before Gilmar Mendes’ request for a review, ministers Cármen Lúcia and Luiz Fux had voted for the unconstitutionality of the changes to Ficha Limpa. For the rapporteur, the change in the ineligibility period “employs the constitutional protection of administrative probity and morality”, “removing voters from safeguarding the fairness of the candidacies presented”.

She also states that the new rule “would result in impunity or amnesty”, harming the electoral process.

Inac highlights urgency of decision

This Friday, the Instituto Não Aceito Corrupção (Inac) released a statement expressing concern about the postponement of the trial caused by the request for review. Previously, the organization had already asked the other ministers to follow the rapporteur’s vote on the topic.

“The interruption of the trial by the Federal Supreme Court creates a serious scenario of legal uncertainty and could allow candidates with dirty records to compete in the next elections, undermining one of the greatest achievements of Brazilian society in the fight against corruption”, says the note.

“The delay in the trial clutters the constitutional definition necessary to protect the integrity of the next electoral process, especially since we have been there for 4 months. We have no more time. The trial must be urgent and immediate”, states Roberto Livianu, public prosecutor at the Public Ministry of São Paulo and president of Inac, via statement.