Brazil STF Rejects Paes Appeal, Securing PL Victory in Rio Governor Race
Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin rejected Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes's appeal, cementing a first-round gubernatorial victory for the conservative Liberal Party.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has cleared the way for a major conservative victory in the country’s second-most populous state. On October 8, 2026, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin rejected an urgent appeal jota.info by Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, who had sought to force a second-round runoff in the Rio de Janeiro gubernatorial election metropoles.com.
The legal battle erupted after the first round of voting on October 4, 2026 wikipedia.org. In that vote, Douglas Ruas of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL)—an ally of the Bolsonaro political family—secured 49.27% of the vote jota.info. Paes, backed by leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, trailed with 42.76% courthousenews.com, which initially set up a runoff scheduled for late October. However, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ruled to invalidate 274,411 votes cast for former Governor Anthony Garotinho, whose candidacy was barred due to a prior administrative misconduct conviction courthousenews.com.
By throwing out Garotinho’s votes, the pool of valid ballots shrank, instantly pushing Ruas’s share to 50.88%—surpassing the absolute majority required to win the election outright in the first round courthousenews.com. Paes's coalition immediately petitioned the stf brazil court, arguing that discarding the votes of over 270,000 citizens undermined democratic participation and that a runoff should proceed abril.com.br.
In his ruling, Justice Zanin stated that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) could not intervene at this stage because the Paes campaign had not yet exhausted all standard appeal routes within the electoral court system itself jota.info. The decision effectively leaves the TSE’s ruling intact, handing a decisive victory to the PL in a key state that has been plagued by leadership instability and is currently run by an interim governor courthousenews.com.
The Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRE-RJ) is scheduled to conduct an official retotaling of the votes on October 10, 2026, to formally declare Ruas the governor-elect jota.info. This swift resolution avoids a prolonged, highly polarized runoff campaign in Rio de Janeiro, solidifying conservative control over one of Brazil's most influential economic and political hubs ahead of the next national cycle.