Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) considers it a «serious irregularity» on the part of the Workers’ Party (PT) of future president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to have failed to notify within the deadline set by law the donation of 660,000 reais (almost 119,000 euros) during the campaign.
According to this report prepared by a technical team of the TSE, the donation, made by the businessman José Seripieri – founder of the medical insurance company Qualicorp -, had not been notified by the PT within the term established by law, within 72 hours from its entry in the party’s accounts.
Thus, according to the investigation by the Electoral and Party Accounts Control Office (Asepa), the PT did not meet the deadlines, since the donation was made on September 27, but the TSE did not receive notice of it until October 3, one day after the first round of the elections and six days after the established deadline.
Asepa also points out that this is the only donation, among the several from individuals and legal entities that the PT has received during the campaign, that has not been properly notified, according to the newspaper ‘O Globo’.
«It is important to clarify that the purpose of this rule is to allow advance knowledge of available resources, in order to protect social control with transparency of campaign finance information,» explains Asepa in its report.
The PT can still present its allegations to the Electoral Justice. Several parties have protested against the «exaggerated» performance of Asepa in these cases and that is why the Chamber of Deputies has already approved a bill for an Electoral Code in which political forces can hire consulting firms, endorsed by the TSE, to audit their own accounts.
As far as the donor is concerned, Seripieri has been Lula’s second largest individual in these elections. To the 660,000 reais given to the PT are added another 500,000 reais (91,000 euros) for the president-elect’s campaign.
This businessman, who spent four days in jail in 2020 for suspicions of irregular payments to the campaign of the then PSDB senator José Serra, owns the plane with which Lula has traveled to Egypt to attend the United Nations climate summit (COP27).
