CNN —
Brazil’s highest electoral court formed a majority Friday to ban former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 on charges alleging that he abused his political power and misused public resources.
Four out of seven judges have voted to find the former president guilty, effectively ending any hope of a political comeback in the 2026 election. A simple majority is needed to reach a final verdict.
Two more judges are expected to announce their decision on Friday and a conviction would bar Bolsonaro from running for public office for eight years.
The charges against him stem from a meeting Bolsonaro held with ambassadors in July 2022, in which he spread false information about Brazil’s electoral system and brought its credibility into question ahead of last year’s fractious election. The meeting was livestreamed by official television channels and on YouTube.
YouTube took down the livestream of the event for not complying with its fake news policy.
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing. Speaking to Brazilian radio station Itatiaia on Friday, Bolsonaro said he planned to appeal the court’s decision.
The far right politician lost the election by the narrowest margin in decades to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Riots on January 8 saw pro-Bolsonaro protesters breaking into government buildings in Brasilia, following weeks of demonstrations over the election results.
The case at the Superior Electoral Court began with a lawsuit brought by Brazil’s Democratic Labor Party against both Bolsonaro and Walter Braga Netto, his running mate in the 2022 elections. The majority of judges voted to find Braga Netto not guilty.
During the meeting with ambassadors, the former president allegedly said the 2022 elections might be compromised due to fraud, according to a report by Judge Benedito Gonçalves.
Bolsonaro also allegedly said that in 2018 voting machines had changed voters’ choices to benefit his opponent, and that the Brazilian voting machines are not auditable, while insinuating that electoral and judicial authorities were protecting “terrorists,” the report added.
Such claims of flaws in the electoral system have all been denied by Brazil’s electoral authorities.
The case at the Superior Electoral Court is one of several cases against the former president.
Previous reporting contributed by CNN’s Duarte Mendonca and Mohammed Tawfeeq.