Lula asks Brazil’s electoral court to release his bank, tax and phone records — if Bolsonaro agrees

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign has asked Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court to make his bank, tax and phone records public for the past eight years — but only if his runoff opponent, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, agrees to the same measure first. The conditional petition, filed Tuesday as Brazil heads into its Oct. 25 presidential runoff, turns a campaign dare into a formal court request with potential legal and political consequences.

According to multiple outlets, including Anadolu Agency, Reuters-syndicated coverage and Agência Brasil, Lula’s lawyers filed the petition with the Superior Electoral Court, known as the TSE, on Oct. 20 and also sent a copy to the Supreme Federal Court. The filing authorizes the lifting of Lula’s banking, tax and telephone secrecy for the previous eight years if Bolsonaro accepts matching disclosure. According to the petition as described by Brazilian media, the proposed disclosure would also cover first lady Rosângela “Janja” Lula da Silva, the couple’s children and companies in which they are partners or administrators, while applying the same categories of disclosure to Bolsonaro, his wife, certain relatives and associated companies. The petition asks that any information be made public through the TSE’s platforms before Wednesday, Oct. 21, so voters could review it before the runoff, according to excerpts published by Brazilian outlets.

The TSE assigned Justice André Mendonça as relator for the case on Oct. 20, a routine procedural step that means he will oversee the matter, not that the court has ruled on it. As of the latest reporting cited in coverage of the filing, Flávio Bolsonaro had not publicly accepted the challenge.

The request is just that — a petition and authorization, not a release of records. No bank, tax or phone records had been made public at the time of reporting. That distinction matters because in Brazil, financial secrecy is protected by law, including Complementary Law 105 of 2001 governing bank secrecy, and lifting or publicly disclosing bank, tax or phone records is generally a serious legal step that usually requires judicial authorization or another clear legal basis.

The filing lands in the final days of a closely watched election. Brazil held the first round of its presidential vote on Oct. 4, but no candidate won an outright majority, sending Lula and Bolsonaro to a runoff on Oct. 25.

Lula had already been pressing the issue in public before taking it to court. In campaign appearances and debates, he challenged Bolsonaro to open his records, framing the issue as one of transparency. “I want to see whether he has the courage to disclose his bank and phone records,” Lula said, according to Al Jazeera and other outlets.

Brazilian media published excerpts of the petition arguing that early disclosure was necessary for voters. In a passage reproduced by Correio Braziliense, the filing said that public release of the candidates’ banking, tax and telephone data before Wednesday was “fundamental” so Brazilians could be properly informed and “freely decide” whom to vote for. The court had not approved the request as of the reporting referenced in those accounts, and the scope of any disclosure remained contingent on Bolsonaro agreeing to the same terms.