Amazonas Audit Court Chief Seeks Reelection Rule Change Despite STF Limit

Yara Amazônia Lins, the president of the Amazonas State Court of Accounts (TCE-AM), tried to change the court’s rules in a way that could allow repeated terms in its top leadership posts, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The move comes after Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled in 2024 that state audit courts may allow only one consecutive reelection for the same leadership position.

State courts of accounts are oversight bodies that audit public spending by state and municipal governments. They are not courts in the ordinary criminal or civil sense, but they have strong institutional power over budgets, procurement and public administrators.

What the Bill Would Do

According to Folha, Lins sent a bill to the Amazonas state legislature earlier in May to update the organic law of the TCE-AM. One proposed article would allow “reconductions” — repeated returns to office — for leadership posts such as president, vice president and corregedor-geral, the internal oversight chief.

The current rule allows a TCE councillor to be reconducted once to the same leadership position. Terms last two years. Folha reported that by using the plural form without a stated limit, the proposal could permit members of the tribunal to remain indefinitely in the same leadership role.

The TCE-AM told Folha that it had asked for the bill to be returned. The court said the proposal did not deal only with reelection rules, but also with “several other points” related to its institutional operation. It added that those points were still being discussed with state lawmakers and that the matter would be sent again to the legislature after those talks.

Folha reported that an official letter it obtained showed the court asked for the bill back on Tuesday, May 26, the same day the newspaper sought comment on the proposal. The court did not answer when asked exactly when it requested the withdrawal.

Why the STF Matters

The legal backdrop is a unanimous STF decision from April 2024 involving the Court of Accounts of Amapá (TCE-AP). In that case, the court accepted a challenge by Brazil’s Prosecutor General’s Office and ruled out any interpretation that would allow more than one consecutive reelection to the same audit-court leadership post.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the case’s rapporteur, said states have autonomy to set rules for elections within their courts of accounts. But the STF held that this autonomy has a constitutional limit: at most one successive reelection, mirroring the principle applied to executive offices. The court said alternation in power is an essential pillar of democracy.

Folha described the Amazonas proposal as challenging that precedent. The TCE-AM, in its statement, did not address the STF ruling directly in the excerpts reported by the newspaper.

Lins’s Current Mandate

Lins took office on December 1, 2025, for what G1 called a historic third term as president of the TCE-AM. The ceremony confirmed the leadership structure for the 2026-2027 biennium, with Josué Cláudio Neto as vice president, Luis Fabian Barbosa as corregedor-geral, Mario de Mello as ombudsman and Júlio Pinheiro remaining at the head of the court’s public accounts school.

Local outlets Amazonas Direito and Amazonas Atual reported that Lins was reelected on November 7, 2024, after changes to the court’s internal rules and state legislation. Amazonas Direito said the change allowed one new reconduction to the same posts. Amazonas Atual reported that the reelection was approved after state lawmakers changed provisions of the TCE-AM organic law and its careers and pay law.

Lins has spent five decades at the TCE-AM, according to G1. She joined in 1975 as a stenographer at age 18, later held technical and administrative posts, became an auditor and took office as a councillor in 2014. She first reached the presidency in 2018 and returned to the post for the 2024-2025 term.

The Amazonas state assembly president, Adjuto Afonso of União Brasil, told Folha that the bill was expected to be put before the legislature’s Constitution and Justice Committee before being discussed by the chamber’s internal oversight office, which would issue an opinion.