Rapporteur of, Senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI) gave in to the pressure of pocket parliamentarians and softened the proposal to establish in the legislation punishing fake news against candidates and against the electoral process.
The, already approved by the House, but stopped about four years ago, can be voted on Wednesday (9) in the Constitution and Justice Commission of.
In the most current report, made public on the night of Monday (7), Castro accepted amendments from Bolsonarists who threaten to vote against the proposal on the grounds that she tries to criminalize the debate of ideas.
By the previous text, it is subject to a penalty of 1 to 4 years, increased in some cases, who disclosed in the electoral propaganda known to be untrue against adversaries or that result in embarrassment, “discouragement to the exercise of vote and delegitimation of the electoral process.”
The amendments accepted by Castro say it does not constitute a crime “the mere criticism or opinion about the electoral service and the process of voting, investigation and totalization of votes”.
One of the main flags of pockets is the defense of the printed vote, which is part of a caudal list of alleged fraud in the electronic ballot box, which has never been proven so far.
Senator Laércio Oliveira (PP-SE) was amended by establishing the return of business funding of the campaigns-prohibited since 2015-but the rapporteur rejected the proposal. The theme can be incorporated into the text, but if there is a majority support from the senators.
O. It revokes the current legislation and establishes a new and only code.
The proposal has the formal objective of modernizing and simplifying the rules, but brings several points that.
The text also addresses an old theme of interest of parliamentarians: electoral polls.
The project approved by the House in 2021, under the leadership of Arthur Lira (PP-AL), established censorship of the dissemination of research on the eve and on the day of the election and the requirement of publication by the institutes of a “hit rate” of past elections.
The current Senate report withdrew censorship and changed the idea of fee for another “reliability indicator.”
The complementary bill approved by the deputies, with 898 articles, places ties to the judiciary, establishing, for example, that Congress would have the power to support decisions of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).
Castro withdrew from the project some of the points criticized by electoral transparency entities, among them which allowed Congress to overthrow TSE decisions and what released the parties to use party fund money for virtually any purpose.
He kept, however, other controversial points.
Among them is the one that eliminated the standardization of the presentation and dissemination of party accounts, the SPCA (), and what limits the performance of the Electoral Justice to a mere checking of formal aspects of the benefits (accounting errors, for example), excluding the possibility of investigating irregularities such as overpricing and diversion of public campaign resources.
Public resources are currently the main source of party funding and candidates, totaling more than $ 6 billion with each dispute.
The part of the text of the chamber maintained by Castro also decreases the current deadlines for ineligibility.
The text approved by the House in 2021 limits the ineligibility to up to eight years, establishing that its beginning is the date of the court decision. Today, the eight years of ineligibility begins to count from the end of the execution of the imposed penalty or the mandate to which the politician was elected, which in practice gives more than eight years.
Congressmen argue to reduce the period even more than what was approved in 2021.
In another passage, the project limits to 360 days the technical analysis period of party accounts and to three years their trial. In the current model, the court has used an average of five years of time, which can result in automatic approval of benefits without analysis and judgment.
To take effect in time for the 2026 elections, the proposal needs to be approved by Congress by September this year.
Castro was also the project rapporteur. Approved by the CCJ, he is ready for voting in plenary, but has lost traction due to disagreements about the proposal.
