Electoral hermeneutics and the application of complementary legislation n° 135/2010

Abstract

The Law Project 518/2009 resulted in the enactment of the Supplementary Law no. 135/2010, popularly known as "Clean Record Act". This law changed the precepts establisbed in Supplementary Law no. 64/1990, which institutes the causes and periods of ineligibility - in other words, the citizen's (in)capacity to receive votes in electoral process. Because it is a law of popular initiative - under tbe terms of Article 61, §2nd of the Federal Constitution - it has a very strong social burden and expresses the aversion of the population to the corruption that has permeated the national political system. The purpose of this work is initially to expose constitutional and infraconstitutional provisions in the area of ineligibilities, making shortly after a brief apology to hermeneutics and, finally, applying it in concrete cases, in order to emphasize the importance of the interpretive art in the multivocal field of Legal Sciences, specificaJly, in Electoral Law.