Ficha Limpa - uma lei a defender?

Abstract

This text presents the story of the Clean Record Law, which establishes the ineligibility of candidates with a dubious prior life, enacted on June 4, 2010. Beginning with the creation of the People's Bill Proposal, as defined by the 1987-88 Constituent Assembly, which was to be an instrument of popular participation, this essay examines the difficulties of proposing Bills in this manner, the problems of their proceedings in Congress, the pedagogical and political potential of this instrument, and the resistances that the Clean Record Bill faced, especially on the issue of Presumption of Innocence. It also describes the actual proceedings over an eight-month period in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, as well as the various stages by which the law, after being approved and promulgated, was analyzed by the Superior Electoral Court and by the Supreme Court, which finally confirmed its constitutionality on March 23, 2011, after another eight months of discussion. In addition, this article addresses the threats that exist to diminish the law's effects, analyzing a recent Supreme Court decision on one of its 21 items, as well as the equally recent disqualification of the law's authors by one of the Court's members. Finally, this text raises the possibility of the Clean Record Law having to be defended from the interests represented by the new administration, installed in Brazil on August 31, 2016.