Four years ago, the Senate chose Davi Alcolumbre as President of the House for the next two years. The election, held on February 2, 2019, was marked by intense political dispute, unusual situations and even accusations of fraud.
The election even had to be redone after 82 ballots were placed in the ballot box, with the total number of senators being 81. To date, the case has not been clarified. The president of the session, senator José Maranhão (MDB-PB), spoke of “a mistake”.
Senators Sérgio Petecão (PSD-AC) and Esperidião Amin (PP-SC) said that there was “fraud”. The then Senator Simone Tebet (MDB-MS), now Minister of Planning and Budget in the Lula government (PT), stated that the case was “regrettable”.
“I don’t know if it was the Bureau. By the principle of good faith, I want to believe that it was not a mistake by the Bureau, that it was an informal error. But surely the senator there was trying to cheat. It’s pitiful. And the two votes were for the same person. It’s unfortunate,” said Tebet.
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The impasse over the vote count generated turmoil in the Senate Plenary. After that, the rest of the ballots were shredded in a machine and the voting was carried out again.
The dispute for the Presidency of the Senate in 2019 was still marked by a dispute between Tebet and Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), party companions and candidates for the position of command of the Upper House.
Before the vote, Tebet withdrew from running. Renan, in turn, also gave up running minutes before the vote, but her name appeared as one of the candidates.
Alcolumbre, until then a politician without great projection, obtained the votes of 42 of the 81 senators. Renan, who left the race at the last minute, had only five votes. The amapaense commanded the Senate until January 2021.
Also participating in the dispute were senators Fernando Collor (Pros-AL, 3 votes); Reguffe (no party-DF, 6 votes); Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA, 8 votes); and Esperidião Amin (PP-SC, 13 votes). Only four senators failed to vote, including Renan Calheiros and Jader Barbalho (MDB-PA).
The election of the demista was seen in Congress as the first political victory of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (at the time, affiliated with the PSL). Afterwards, however, the president ended up moving away from Alcolumbre – who, today, supports the Lula government.
Editing: Vivian Virissimo
