The president of the (Superior Electoral Court), must respond to a request from party presidents to freeze the spending ceiling for electoral campaigns. The leaders of the acronyms want the value to be frozen at the same amount defined for 2022, without adjustment for inflation. Therefore, transfers to candidates are also limited.
The request was made in at least two meetings, the last of which was this Tuesday (30), and the other two weeks ago. Kassio must formalize the measure in a resolution to be published in the coming days.
The party leaders’ argument is that the 2026 electoral fund remained at R$4.9 billion, the same value as the last election. Therefore, the spending limit for applications should also remain the same.
The managers’ understanding is that increasing the ceiling could generate distortions. A candidate in an election considered expensive, such as that of the Government of Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, for example, would tend to spend even more resources, consuming money from the electoral fund that could be sent to other candidates.
Furthermore, the parties requested that the TSE speed up the analysis of requests to join the debt refinancing program exclusive to parties and their foundations. There was also a request that the four-year limit for provisional party bodies, determined by the court, only come into effect after the registration of candidacies this year.
As shown by Sheetthe leadership of major parties, from PT to PL, to exclude majority campaigns —of candidates for the Presidency, the Senate and state governments— from the calculation of the minimum distribution quota for women and black people.
The proposal is to change the financing rule for this year’s election, with the approval of . Regarding this point, however, Kassio only signaled that he will study the matter and determined technical analysis.
Behind the scenes, the president of the electoral court told interlocutors that this change was difficult to implement, especially given the proximity of the campaign. Another considerable viable request is the disclosure of the female investment floor for each acronym within 48 hours after the end of the application registration period. The value takes into account the percentage of female candidates in each party.
As for campaign spending limits, electoral legislation sets until July 20th to define the amounts.
For party leaders, the eventual readjustment of spending ceilings due to inflation, without a real increase in electoral fund resources, would create an asymmetry between authorized limits and resources available for campaigns. The freeze would then be “technically coherent and financially prudent”.
The Union has already made resources from the electoral fund available to the TSE for this year’s elections. But, according to legislation, the amounts only become available to parties after the distribution criteria among candidates have been decided by the party management. The decision must be formalized with minutes of the meeting, be publicized and indicate an exclusive bank account.
At this point, the parties expressed to Kassio their concern that the electoral court would delay in assessing this documentation, which would delay operational planning and even the fulfillment of the required quotas.
But quotas are also subject to contestation in themselves. According to interlocutors, they defended the change against the majority candidacies, which also has the support of the Republicans and a wing of the PSD.
A is against, as he understands that he already has a design of applications that meets the current rule. The main focus of both parties is to elect federal deputies and senators. If opponents have difficulties managing the fund for these candidacies, the chances of success for PP and União Brasil candidates in this strategy of increasing their strength in Congress increase.
Currently, the TSE determines that parties allocate 30% of their funds to black candidates. The same percentage must be used to invest in female candidates.
The rule does not determine how this percentage should be distributed. In this way, parties can concentrate the reservation for women and black people in a few more expensive candidates, such as for the Presidency and for state governments, or spread this quota across several candidates for deputy.
