Os Limites da accountability: a cassação da candidatura à reeleição do Prefeito de Rio Grande (RS) e as eleições de 2004.

Abstract

The present dissertation focuses the 2004 election in the municipality of Rio Grande (RS), specifically the repealing of candidacy for re-election of Mayor Fábio Branco by the Electoral Court, his replacement on the eve of the election by his cousin, Janir Branco, and Janir’s election of over 75% of the valid votes. These facts are analyzed from the limits and dilemmas of accountability, because at the same time that the controling mechanisms operated efficiently and ensured the smoothness of the election, the people, by exercising the electoral accountability, not only disowned these measures, as repudiated as consecrated the nominee to replace the mayor impeached. The analytical effort is to explore the different dimensions of this contradiction and the reasons why the people of Rio Grande rejected the decisions of justice and sought to assert its sovereign will.