Bolsonaro candidate seeks back door to Rio governorship

The Rio de Janeiro State Assembly (Alerj) elected Douglas Ruas as its new speaker on Friday. He ran unopposed after the opposition boycotted the vote in protest against a court ruling that kept the ballot open, which they argued exposes lawmakers to pressure and retaliation. 

They have pledged to challenge Ruas's election before the Supreme Court.

The Rio governorship situation has been unsettled since former Gov. Cláudio Castro resigned in March, on the eve of a ruling that would have stripped him of his office. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) subsequently declared him ineligible for eight years after finding that he had used public workers as campaign staff members in 2022. 

With the governor gone, his former lieutenant governor having departed for a seat on a state audit court and the state assembly's previous speaker ousted for leaking classified information about an organized crime investigation, Rio de Janeiro's acting governor is the head of the state’s appeals court, Ricardo Couto.