Justice Edson Fachin elected Brazil’s next head of top electoral court

Justice Edson Fachin today (Dec. 17) was elected the next chief justice of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to take office on February 28. Justice Alexandre de Moraes will be second in charge.

The election is usually protocol, with Supreme Court justices who work at the TSE taking turns in its chair. Fachin is to replace Justice Luís Roberto Barroso.

Fachin should remain in the position until August, when his two-year tenure as TSE justice ends. Justice Alexandre de Moraes will then take up the post and should be in charge of the Electoral Court through the 2022 general elections. He stays in the post until June 2024.

The symbolic election was held during the closing session of the judiciary year at the TSE, and justices cast their ballot with a voting machine installed at the court’s plenary room—six to one. Traditionally, the next to occupy the chair votes for the second in command.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court is made up of seven full justices—three from the Supreme Court, two from the Superior Court of Justice, plus two lawyers seen as possessing outstanding knowledge, appointed by the president from a three-name list submitted by the Supreme Court.

“A turned page”

Before wrapping up the year at the Electoral Court, current chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso took stock of the court’s work over the year, stressing its resistance under fire.

Without naming any specific incidents, Barroso said that “the Electoral Court in particular has sustained repeated attacks, with false fraud accusations and offenses against its members, in an under-the-table effort to discredit democracy. An outrageous campaign that advocated the return of printed ballot with manual counting. Once again, a wager placed on backwardness.”

The head of the Superior Electoral Court praised the rejection of the printed ballot bill by Congress. “I hope this is page turned in Brazil’s electoral history. I hope no more efforts are made to undermine the system that has ensured the integrity of Brazilian democracy since 1996,” Barroso declared.