Brazil’s Novo party filed an electoral investigation on Saturday against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, alleging that a samba-school parade earlier this year improperly promoted their bid for re-election.
The action, filed with Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), is an Ação de Investigação Judicial Eleitoral (AIJE), a formal proceeding used to investigate alleged abuses that could affect an election. Novo is the party of presidential candidate Romeu Zema.
The party’s lawyers waited for Lula’s candidacy to be formally registered before submitting the petition. Novo is asking the court to cancel the registration of the Lula-Alckmin ticket and declare both politicians ineligible for eight years.
What Novo Alleges
The case concerns the Acadêmicos de Niterói samba school’s performance at this year’s Carnival. The parade honored Lula, who is seeking a fourth presidential term. Novo alleges that the event involved political and economic abuse, as well as the improper use of media to benefit the ticket before the official campaign period.
According to the petition, the samba school received R$9.6 million (approximately USD 1.8 million, based on a rough conversion). Novo says R$4 million came from Niterói’s city government, while the remainder came from the city government of Rio de Janeiro, the Rio de Janeiro state government and Embratur, Brazil’s tourism promotion agency.
The party argues that public resources and government structures were used to support Lula’s candidacy months before the formal campaign began. It also claims that the parade was not simply a cultural event but took on explicit electoral characteristics.
“State resources and infrastructure were placed at the service of Lula’s candidacy months before the official campaign began, precisely in one of our main cultural celebrations,” Novo President Eduardo Ribeiro said, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
Government Denial
In February, Lula’s government said it had not provided public funds to Acadêmicos de Niterói and had played no role in choosing or developing the parade’s theme. The samba school was later relegated to a lower division after its performance.
Novo’s petition also cites a precedent from 2006. That year, the São Paulo samba school Leandro de Itaquera honored Geraldo Alckmin, then the state’s governor and Lula’s opponent in that year’s presidential election. The Workers’ Party (PT), Lula’s political organization, took legal action at the time, arguing that public money had been used to promote Alckmin.
The current case is based on single-source reporting from Folha de S.Paulo. The filing does not establish that the alleged violations occurred; the TSE would need to assess the evidence and decide whether the ticket’s conduct violated electoral law.