Greatest amnesty in history for parties enters the agenda of the CCJ – 04/20/2023 – Power

The CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) of the Chamber of Deputies put on the voting agenda for next Tuesday (25) the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that establishes the greatest amnesty in history for electoral irregularities committed by political parties.

The main committee of the Chamber, the CCJ is the first step in the processing of a PEC in the House. If approved, it goes on to be analyzed by a special commission and, after that, goes to the plenary vote.

The proposal was signed by 184 deputies, including government leaders José Guimarães (PT-CE) and opposition leaders Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ).

The text prohibits any punishment for electoral illegalities committed until the enactment of the PEC, 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.

The proposal was presented last month and already has a report favorable to its approval by the CCJ.

“The present proposal —by setting a starting point for the application of sanctions to political parties for non-compliance with sex and race quotas, as well as the possibility of donating a legal entity for the discharge of debts contracted or assumed until August 2015— reinforces the core element of the Brazilian electoral process: electoral annuality”, wrote deputy Diego Coronel (PSD-BA) in his report.

The annuality to which the deputy refers establishes that changes in the electoral law will only be effective in the dispute if approved at least one year in advance.

It turns out that gender and race quotas have been in effect for years and are intended to minimize male and white dominance in politics. They establish that parties must allocate resources proportional to the number of women and blacks they bid for in the race, being at least 30% in the case of female candidates.

The parties, which last year alone received R$ 6 billion from the public coffers, have traditionally not complied with this rule and have relied, for that, on the leniency and slowness of the Electoral Justice.

The PEC that can be voted on this Tuesday 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”.

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 massive consumption in restaurants.

Neither the author of the PEC, deputy Paulo Magalhães (PSD-BA), nor the rapporteur, Diego Coronel, manifested themselves in their texts about this article.

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.