Amnesty PEC: Understand in 7 points Congress proposal – 05/15/2023 – Power

The Chamber of Deputies is preparing to vote on a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that establishes the greatest amnesty in history for electoral irregularities committed by political parties, which in 2022 alone received R$ 6 billion from public coffers.

With the support of both the government and the opposition, it should be approved this Tuesday (16) by the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Commission, in a first step towards its progress.

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.

To be approved in plenary, a PEC needs the support of at least 60% of parliamentarians (308 out of 513 in the Chamber and 49 out of 81 in the Senate), in two rounds of voting in each House. If this occurs, it is enacted and becomes effective, with no possibility of vetoing the Executive Branch.

1) What is the PEC? The text prohibits any punishment for illegalities committed until its enactment (including disrespect for the minimum transfer of funds to women and blacks in elections), in addition to allowing the return of corporate financing to settle debts prior to 2015.

2) who support amnesty? PEC 9/2023 is signed by 184 deputies, including government leaders José Guimarães (PT-CE) and opposition leaders Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ). The text bears the signatures of 13 parties and federations, the main ones being the PL of former president Jair Bolsonaro (40 deputies sign), the federation led by the PT of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (33), as well as the PSD (33 ), MDB (29), PP (17), Republicans (15) and Podemos (8).

3) Are quotas for blacks and women part of the amnesty? Yes. The first article of the PEC extends to the October 2022 dispute the amnesty to parties that have not met the minimum quota for transferring public resources to women and blacks. If approved, the proposal consolidates total impunity for widespread non-compliance with these quotas, which came into effect slowly over time with the aim of encouraging the participation of women and blacks in politics.

In April 2022, Congress had already approved and enacted a PEC granting amnesty to parties for non-compliance with quotas in previous elections.

Motivated by impunity or not, the fact is that parties have repeatedly failed to comply with these quotas. Such as Sheet showed, the summits of the three Powers had only four women after the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and remain male and white until today.

4) Failures of the parties detected by TSE analysis will be ignored with the amnesty? Yes. The second article of the PEC establishes that “sanctions of any nature, including the return and collection of amounts, fine or suspension of the Party Fund and the Special Fund for Campaign Financing, will not apply to the rendering of accounts for the financial and electoral period of the political parties prior to the enactment of this amendment to the Constitutional Amendment”.

In other words, once the PEC is approved, the analysis by the Electoral Justice of the parties’ accounts regarding the application of public money in their day-to-day activities and in elections would be practically innocuous.

There is a long history of public money being misused by the subtitles and used for luxury expenses, such as the purchase of helicopters, real estate, cars worth more than R$ 100,000, in addition to huge expenses in restaurants.

5) What does the PEC say about the return of corporate donations? The third article allows parties to receive corporate money again “to settle debts with suppliers contracted or assumed until August 2015”, when the STF prohibited the financing of companies to parties and candidates.

6) Amnesties like the one prepared now are common? Yes. In the mini-electoral reforms approved by Congress in the year before each election, it has been common to loosen rules and oversight, which at certain times includes pardoning those who break the law —but so far nothing has been approved with the magnitude that the current proposal of amnesty provides.

7) What is the official justification for this amnesty? Member of Parliament who heads the PEC, Paulo Magalhães (PSD-BA) signs the justification for the proposal. In the text, he makes no mention of the general amnesty of party accountability and says that forgiveness for non-compliance with quotas also in 2022 aims to “preserve the stability of the elections and guarantee legal certainty” as a result, among other points, of an alleged doubt about the scope of the rule (whether national or regional).