Amnesty PEC is unacceptable setback, says ministry – 05/18/2023 – Power

The Ministry of Racial Equality released a note this Thursday morning (18) in which it condemns and calls the Amnesty PEC an inadmissible setback.

The text has the support of the government leadership of the opposition, passing through President Lula’s PT, and advances to be approved by Congress. He proposes forgiveness to all parties that have not met the minimum quota for transferring resources to women and blacks.

“The setback represented by PEC 09/2023 is unacceptable, which empties the first of many steps that need to be taken to combat the multiple barriers to equal access for women and black people to political office”, says the text from Anielle Franco’s ministry.

The note also states that the argument used by the parliamentarians, that they had difficulty in adjusting to the rules, is not sustainable.

“In Brazil, racism and sexism are the rule, not the exception. Thus, the absence, silence and false neutrality of initiatives such as PEC 9/2023 make institutions and their agents ethically and politically responsible for the perpetration of this system, because, as pointed out Lélia González, as long as this question is not assumed in a complete and effectively committed way, it will be very difficult, in Brazil, to exercise an effectively democratic constitutional order.”

On Tuesday (16), the Ministry of Women had already positioned itself against the measure as well, by releasing a note whose title was “When will women’s political participation be taken seriously?”.

“This is the fourth time that this political right of women has been threatened. PEC 9/2023 is being processed less than a year after the last amnesty approved by the National Congress in May 2022”, wrote the folder, stating that it followed the procedure with concern. . Minister Cida Gonçalves, who commands the portfolio, is affiliated with the PT.

The PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution was approved, on Tuesday (16), at the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Commission, in a first step towards its progress. Now it will be evaluated by a special commission and then by the plenary.

Congress had already pardoned the parties in 2022 for non-compliance with the gender quota in elections and in previous annual exercises, which prevented the TSE from determining the return of tens of millions of reais to public coffers.

The approved proposal has only three articles. The first extends the amnesty to parties that have not met the minimum quota for transferring public funds to women and blacks to the October 2022 dispute. In April 2022, Congress had already approved and enacted a PEC granting amnesty to parties for non-compliance with quotas in previous elections.

The second article establishes that “sanctions of any nature shall not apply, including the return and collection of amounts, fines or suspension of the Party Fund and the Special Campaign Financing Fund, on the rendering of accounts for the financial and electoral period of the political parties that prior to the enactment of this amendment to the Constitution”.

The third allows parties to receive business money again “to settle debts with suppliers contracted or assumed until August 2015”, when the STF (Federal Supreme Court) prohibited the financing of companies to parties and candidates.