The expected has finally come to pass, and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been formally barred from this year’s presidential election in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Superior Electoral Court gathered on Friday in a surprise extraordinary sitting, where they deliberated several objection requests regarding Lula’s candidacy. The electoral justices voted 6 to 1 in favor of excluding the former President from this year’s ballot.
As a result of Lula’s appeals court convictions for passive corruption and money laundering, for which he is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence, the Superior...