A democracia na encruzilhada: reflexões acerca da legitimidade democrática da justiça eleitoral para a cassação de mandatos eletivos no Brasil

Abstract

The present work is stimulated by the reflection about the relation between the counter majority role of the Brazilian Judiciary Power in electoral matters and the popular sovereignty, investigating, on one hand, its democratic legitimacy on the forfeiture of elective offices and the risks of compromising the very manifestation of citizenship, and on the other, to understand how the Electoral Justice has performed in defense of the democratic process, and whether this performance has achieved to contribute accordingly to the constant process of maturation of the Brazilian democracy. The research focuses on some central aspects of electoral law, which is directly and indirectly involved in the task of construction and (re)signification of the Brazilian constitutional democracy, as an instrument of Electoral Justice in the exercise of its exclusive jurisdiction to handle the electoral process in all its phases, guarantying to the citizenship the freedom of choice of its representatives and the isonomy among the candidates. In order to do so, we will investigate the performance of the Electoral Justice in matters of impugnation of elective offices, especially from a study of cases in Piauí state, where there is remarkably significant number of mandates forfeiture of mayors due to allegations of abuse of economic or politic power, mainly on charges of buying votes. Thus, from Piauí case which is styled case Cel. José Dias, we will analyze the consequences of the decisions that repeal mandates, records and diplomas for the elections results, especially the cases of tenure of second ranked candidates and direct and indirect supplemental elections as additional judicial construction. Based on data from Piauí Regional Electoral Court (TRE), we will analyze whether this frankly activist performance of the Justice has contributed to an intensification of the judicialization of the electoral process. The research, thus, does not follow one single author or specific theoretical framework, but it uses the data from Electoral Justice, and from the very constitutional text, besides a variety of authors that, somehow, have contributed significantly to the constitutional and electoral construction of the Brazilian democratic thought.