The (Superior Electoral Court) must consider, this Thursday (12), a process that may establish jurisprudence on cases in which electoral donations are diverted to white candidates.
Since 2020, the country has had rules that provide for a minimum transfer of funds (from public resources) to black candidates. Initially, this value should be proportional to the number of black candidates in the party. From , this financing started to be at least 30% of the amount received by each acronym.
What is on the agenda at the TSE now has as its backdrop the debate as to whether it is appropriate to punish with impeachment, and in what situations, a self-declared black candidate who receives , then counted as a quota, and passes on part of it to white candidates (who are also debating whether punishment would be appropriate).
In the appeal analyzed by the court, referring to 2024 in the municipality of Barroquinha, in Ceará, the city’s current mayor, Jaime Veras —self-declared mixed race— received R$155,000 for his campaign. After the first round, which was , he donated part of that amount to the campaigns of six candidates for city councilor, two of whom were white.
According to current rules, black and female candidates could only transfer resources in the case of expenses used for their benefit.
The opposition requested the revocation of the mandate of the mayor and elected councilors — a request granted, in part, by the TRE-CE (Regional Electoral Court of Ceará). As a result, new elections would be held in the municipality last year, which was revised by decision of the minister. At the moment, what is being analyzed is a new appeal from the opposition, which aims to reestablish the conviction handed down by the second instance.
They argue that the remaining resources from the elected mayor’s campaign should have been returned to the National Treasury.
Scheduled for a virtual plenary session in February, the trial at the TSE began with the vote of rapporteur André Mendonça, who was accompanied by the minister, current president of the court. The case, however, was referred for in-person analysis following a request for prominence by Minister Floriano de Azevedo Marques.
When voting, Mendonça denied the opposition’s appeal. He understood that the percentage transferred to white candidates irregularly by Jaime Veras — which would be 8.7% of the resources received by him — would not be enough to justify the revocation of the mandate of the self-declared brown mayor.
“The concern is that, if it adopts this parameter, the court will send a very delicate message to society, that deviations from this level could be tolerated, even when it comes to resources linked to the promotion of black and brown candidacies”, says Luciana Carneiro, one of the lawyers representing the PT coalition in Barroquinha, who filed the action.
The defense of Veras and his deputy, on the other hand, highlights the argument that the revocation would be disproportionate and that the case highlighted would not have had an impact on the election. “Revoking the elected black candidate for alleged violation of racial quota financing is nonsense. Because he, who is the recipient of the rule to benefit, can he be elected and will he be impeached?”, says Vicente Braga, one of the mayor’s lawyers.
In a statement signed by the deputy electoral attorney general, Alexandre Espinosa Bravo Barbosa, the Public Ministry, in turn, was in favor of the opposition’s appeal. In the document, the prosecutor argues that the same reasoning adopted by the TSE for female candidacies — that the misuse of resources intended for women’s campaigns constitutes a serious infraction, regardless of the amount involved — should be used for black candidacies.
It also points out that, as stated in the records, even though the amount transferred by the mayor was 8.7% of the resources received – totaling just over R$ 13 thousand – the illicit contribution made to the two councilors would correspond to more than 90% of their campaigns. With just under 15 thousand inhabitants, Barroquinha had a ceiling spent on campaigning for councilor of R$16 thousand in 2024.
In the same process, the cases of two councilors who transferred resources to two councilors are also questioned.
Furthermore, although the topic is not under discussion in this action, the episode raises questions about the extent to which there is external control, in addition to self-declaration, as to whether the quota resources are in fact being allocated to candidacies from black people.
For constitutional law professor Adilson Moreira, author of the Jabuti-winning book “Racial Literacy: A Proposal for the Reconstruction of Brazilian Democracy”, the case in question illustrates the importance of having, as is the case in public competitions and selection processes at public universities, hetero-identification commissions in elections. As shown by Sheet.
“The funds were allocated to an individual who should not have been the beneficiary of it, because he is a white man. He is read as a white person everywhere on the planet”, says Moreira.
When asked about this, Jaime Veras’ defense defended the legitimacy of the self-declaration made by each candidate and said that the opponents could have challenged the registration if they wanted.
