Arruda

He was Senator for the Federal District from 1995 to 2001, federal deputy from 2003 to 2007 and Governor of the Federal District from 2007 to 2010. He was the PSD's named candidate for Governor of the Federal District in 2026, but the Superior Electoral Court rejected his registration on 24 September 2026.

Career

Arruda trained as an electrical engineer and held posts at the public companies Novacap and CEB before serving as public works secretary under Joaquim Roriz. He was elected senator in 1994 and resigned in May 2001 during the Senate voting-panel scandal. He placed third in the 1998 race for Federal District governor, was the district's most-voted federal deputy in 2002, and won the governorship in the first round in 2006. He left office in 2010. His many party affiliations include PSDB, PFL, DEM and PR, and he joined the PSD in 2025, which announced him as its gubernatorial candidate in 2026.

Controversies

Congresso em Foco reports that Arruda has been convicted in six administrative-misconduct (improbidade) cases linked to Operação Caixa de Pandora. The regional electoral court of the Federal District unanimously rejected his 2026 candidacy in September 2026, finding him ineligible under the Ficha Limpa law. On 24 September 2026 the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), with Dias Toffoli as rapporteur, upheld that decision by five votes to two. Toffoli held that a conviction from July 2026 alone sustains the ineligibility. Arruda's defence argued that the cases are connected and that the eight-year period runs from his first conviction in 2014, citing a 2025 law that changed how ineligibility is counted. Electoral prosecutors argued that he remains ineligible, in the strictest reading until December 2030. The decision stands unless a further appeal changes it.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipédia · Congresso em Foco · Congresso em Foco · Wikipedia

Photo: Valter Campanato/ABr, CC BY 3.0 br, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)