Brazil's Regional Electoral Court of Sao Paulo (TRE-SP) overturned on Tuesday one of the rulings that had made Pablo Marcal, now a presidential candidate for the small party PRTB, ineligible to run for office until 2032. The decision was reported by the Brazilian news site O Antagonista.
By a vote of five to one, the court dismissed claims of abuse of political power and misuse of social media during Marcal's 2024 campaign for mayor of Sao Paulo. The case had been filed by the local chapter of the PSB party, which alleged ten irregularities by the then candidate, but judges ruled the claims unfounded.
The lone dissenting vote came from Judge Claudio Lagroiva, the case's original rapporteur, who argued Marcal crossed the line of free speech by spreading false information and inflammatory rhetoric. He wrote that the repeated use of charged terms like dictatorship and censorship, broadcast by a candidate with significant reach on social media, was serious enough to undermine confidence in the electronic voting system. Judge Regis de Castilho, who authored the winning opinion, countered that Marcal's rhetoric did not threaten the functioning of the electoral system, noting that Brazil's Constitution does not bar criticism of the judiciary any more than it bars criticism of the legislature or the executive branch. Four other judges joined Castilho's opinion.
More legal hurdles remain
Tuesday's ruling does not resolve all of Marcal's legal troubles. According to Brazilian outlet CartaCapital, TRE-SP had already overturned a separate ineligibility ruling in November 2025, in a case involving allegations that Marcal sold political support to city council candidates in exchange for campaign donations made via Pix, Brazil's instant payment system. In that case, judges found insufficient evidence to sustain the original conviction.
A third case remains pending: the so-called cut championship, a 2024 campaign strategy that encouraged staff to produce and distribute short video clips of Marcal on social media. In that case, TRE-SP upheld the conviction by a vote of four to three and fined the influencer 420,000 reais, roughly $80,000. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's highest electoral authority, still needs to rule on pending appeals in this and other cases before Marcal's eligibility status is fully settled.