Júlio disrupts convention and questions alliance; Mendes hits back

Júlio raised a point of order after former governor Mauro Mendes, state president of União Brasil, announced the start of voting at the convention. Júlio claimed that the ballot included the option of nominating a vice-president on Pivetta's ticket, which, according to him, would not be allowed.

Mendes denied this and stated that the ballot only had what had been agreed between the conventionalists, that is, only two options: whether they want their own candidacy, led by Senator Jayme Campos, or whether they want to form a coalition with the Republicans.

Then, Júlio took the floor and claimed that the Republicans had not formalized their intention to join the Union and, therefore, only the approval of Jayme's ticket to the Government should be voted on.

According to the party's secretary general, deputy Dilmar Dal Bosco, parties interested in having the support of the Union should have filed the request with the directory up to three days before the convention, but no party or candidate did so.

"According to our party's procedure, interested people should file [request for support] three days before the convention. The deadline for any party that wanted to have support from União Brasil had to be filed by the president of any group, so that we could deliberate here. No party filed it," said Dilmar before the start of the convention.

The Union convention is being held in Cuiabá this Thursday afternoon (30). Voting began at 12:45 pm and should last 5 hours, as determined by statute.

Mendes denies

Mendes denied any irregularities and said that all decisions were made in consensus with the national leadership of the party, in Brasília.

The governor also read the Republicans' letter of intent addressed to the Union, asking for the party's support in Pivetta's coalition. The auditorium, filled with Jayme's supporters, even booed the former governor.

"There is no procedure that says that in order to express a desire to vote at the convention, it has to be formalized by another party. No outside party can propose something here. Those who have the legitimacy to propose something within the convention are the party's members", said Mendes.

"Any member of the party can propose, can apply, can propose something for this convention to decide. So, two members made divergent proposals. And these two divergent proposals will be put to a vote", he added.

With the impasse, the risk of the convention being judicialized by one of the groups increases.