Brazil's TSE Gives Lula and Alckmin Three Days to Explain Campaign Spending

By Elena Vasquez

Brazil's top electoral court has given President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin three days to explain campaign expenses flagged by technical staff. Justice Dias Toffoli of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) signed the decision on Thursday.

The order covers the accounts of the winning 2026 presidential ticket. Technicians at the court identified pending items in the campaign's financial reporting. These include air travel spending, supplier contracts and paid boosting of propaganda on social media platforms.

What did the technicians find?

The findings came from the Advisory Office for the Examination of Electoral and Party Accounts (Asepa), the court unit that audits campaign finance. In a second review of the accounts filed by the candidates, Asepa concluded it needed additional information to continue its audit.

The technical unit raised several specific issues:

• Signs of subcontracting by suppliers hired with money from the Special Campaign Financing Fund (FEFC), the public pool known as the electoral fund.
• Doubts about the operational capacity of those contracted companies.
• Missing documents proving that certain air travel expenses relate to actual campaign activity.

Why do the flight records matter?

Some airline tickets show an apparent incompatibility of dates, times or itineraries, according to the technicians. The campaign must reconcile those records with its reported activities.

The review also targets reimbursements to public coffers for transport and travel expenses. That includes the possible use of official vehicles and drivers during the campaign. To settle the question, the ticket must file route reports, calculation records for the amounts reimbursed and proof the funds were returned.

What does the court want on digital ads?

The audit extends to digital propaganda spending. Asepa asked the campaign to identify the advertiser accounts it used and to submit financial reports from the digital platforms covering paid content boosting.

The technicians also demanded clarification on production and boosting costs for propaganda whose paid amplification was ruled irregular in a decision by Justice André Mendonça on 25 September of this year.

What happens next?

Toffoli ordered the candidates to be notified through their lawyers. "I order the notification of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and of Geraldo José Rodrigues Alckmin Filho, through their constituted lawyers, so that, within a period of 3 (three) days, they comply with the specified procedures," the justice wrote in his dispatch.

Toffoli set a strict procedural deadline. Once the three-day window closes, with or without a response from the defense, the case returns immediately to the court's technical unit for the audit to continue. The speed of the timeline signals that the TSE intends to close the 2026 accounts review before the flagged items can stall in procedural limbo.