Chamber postpones installation of the Amnesty PEC commission – 07/12/2023 – Power

The Chamber of Deputies postponed to the beginning of August the installation of the special commission that will analyze the Amnesty PEC, a proposal that aims to grant the greatest pardon in history to political parties.

The installation was scheduled for the afternoon of this Wednesday (12), but ended up not taking place due to the holding, at the same time, of a session of the National Congress to analyze presidential vetoes.

Nineteen parliamentarians —the minimum presence required was 18— even registered their presence on the commission, which should be chaired by deputy Diego Coronel (PSD-BA) and reported by Antonio Carlos Rodrigues (SP), from Jair Bolsonaro’s PL.

The proposed amendment to the Constitution of Amnesty is supported by almost all parties.

The special committee will have a period of up to 40 sessions to discuss the topic. This is the last phase before the plenary vote. To be approved, 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.

Behind the scenes, members of the party summits discuss proposals to soften the text and try to reduce the negative repercussions of the measure.

The PEC has, for now, 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 states 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 Fund for Campaign Financing, 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”.

That is, once the PEC is approved, the analysis by the Electoral Court of the parties’ accounts regarding the application of public money would be practically innocuous.

The third article of the PEC 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.