TSE of Brazil detects “serious irregularity” in Lula Da Silva’s campaign: they notified late donation

The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Brazil considers a “serious irregularity” by the Workers’ Party (PT) of the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, for not having notified the donation of R$660,000 (almost US$124,000) during the campaign.

According to this report prepared by a technical team from the TSE, the donation, made by businessman José Seripieri -founder of the Qualicorp medical insurer-, would not have been notified by the PT within the period established by law, before 72 hours from its entry into party accounts.

Thus, according to the investigation of the Electoral and Party Accounts Control Advisory (Asepa), the PT would not have respected the deadlines since the donation was made on September 27, but the TSE did not receive news of it until September 3. October, one day after the first round of the elections and six more than the established deadline.

The Asepa also points out that this is the only donation, among the various donations from natural and legal persons that the PT has received in the campaign, that has not been correctly notified, reports the newspaper O Globo.

“It is important to clarify that the objective of this norm is to allow advance knowledge of the available resources, in order to protect social control with the transparency of campaign financial information,” explains Asepa in its report.

There are several parties that have protested the “exaggerated” performance of Asepa in these cases and that is why the Chamber has already approved a bill for an Electoral Code in which political forces can hire consulting companies, endorsed by the TSE, to oversee its own accounts.

As regards the donor, Seripieri was Lula’s second largest individual donor in these elections. To the R$660,000 given to the PT another R$500,000 (US$93,700) are added for the campaign of the president-elect.

This businessman, who spent four days in jail in 2020 on suspicion of irregular payments to the campaign of then PSDB senator José Serra, owns the plane with which Lula Da Silva traveled to Egypt to attend the United Nations climate summit (COP27).

With information from BioBioChile