The councilor Major Palumboleader of the PP in the São Paulo City Council (SP), said this Tuesday (3) that the party is no longer part of the support base for the mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB).
The reason for the breakup is an action by the councilor Paulo Frange (MDB)from the same party as Nunes, who asked the Electoral Court to challenge the PP’s list of councilors for fraud regarding the gender quota. The PT also filed an identical action.
Secretary of Institutional Relations at the city hall and also municipal president of the MDB, Enrico Misasi states that the action filed by Frange was an “individual decision” by the councilor and that he did not inform the party or the mayor that he would take legal action.
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The PP doubled in size in the last election and will have four councilors from 2025. In addition to Palumbo, Janaína Paschoal, Dr. Murillo Lima and Sergeant Nantes will occupy a seat in the São Paulo Legislature.
If the Electoral Court decides to revoke the ticket, a new calculation will be made for the redistribution of seats to other parties. The measure has the potential to benefit Frange, who failed to be re-elected for his seventh term, but remained the MDB’s first deputy.
“Come here and tell me to my face, I have no problem talking to anyone. Now, you want to take away the legal and fair rights of those who ran for office. The guy won on the field, on the four lines, and now they want to win on the mat? They will not win” said Palumbo during a meeting of the College of Leaders. “The PP is leaving the government base. We will not tolerate this type of policy. You [MDB] they are together with the PT on this. The action is identical”, he concluded.
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The rupture occurs amid negotiations to expand the PP’s space in the Nunes administration. Party leaders met with the mayor last Monday (2), to discuss the issue, but it was not defined which secretariats will be commanded by the party. New conversations are scheduled for next week.
“This action is an individual decision and not communicated by councilor Paulo Frange. It was not discussed with anyone from the MDB or the mayor. We found out through the media that he filed the lawsuit. The MDB respects the popular vote. The PP is a first-rate partner of Mayor Ricardo Nunes’ government and has elected a good bench with which we want to work together”, stated secretary Enrico Misasi.
In the action, Frange’s lawyers claim that the PP defrauded the gender quota that determines that at least 30% of the ticket must be made up of female candidates. The argument is that the party launched four fictitious women’s candidacies with the aim of fulfilling the requirement.
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They had, respectively, 55, 18, 59 and 89 votes. The piece argues that two of the women presented zero accounts, that is, they declared neither income nor campaign expenses, while the third had her candidacy challenged for not having reported accounts in 2014. The fourth candidate declared R$6,000 in expenses , but without pointing out recipes.
According to the action, there is no record of effective campaign actions by any of the four candidates. “They were women placed just to fulfill a quota, and not to actually be candidates. Fraud of the gender quota is clearly present,” he told Márlon Reis, one of the lawyers signing the request to revoke the PP ticket. He expects the case to be judged by the first half of next year.
Reis states that the action is based on summary 73 of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). In May of this year, the court approved the understanding that gender fraud occurs if at least one of the following conditions is present: zero or inexpressive voting; zero, standardized reporting or absence of relevant financial transactions; and absence of effective campaigning, publicizing or promoting the candidacy of third parties.
