Bolsonaro Hints at Approval of R$2 Billion Electoral Fund

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro signaled on Friday, January 10th, that he will sanction the bill passed by Congress in December, which allocates R$2 billion (US$500 million) to the Electoral Fund.

Under pressure from demonstrators shouting against the ‘fundão’, (‘big fund’ which doubles the public funds allocated to election campaigns) Bolsonaro launched a campaign to prevent the population from voting for candidates who use public money in their campaigns.

“I have a difficult moment ahead of me, which is the R$2 billion from the ‘fundão’. I launch the campaign here: don’t vote for a legislator who uses the ‘fundão’,” the president said during the inauguration of the new emergency room at Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Santos, on the São Paulo coast.

Bolsonaro has been pressured by his supporters since the bill came into his hands to be sanctioned. The amount of R$2 billion was negotiated by the government with Congress. The president may sanction or veto the controversial bill.

The president again used the 1950 Impeachment Law to justify a decision that went against his campaign speech and the will of his voters. “The password is out. The ‘fundão’ is a law that was born in 2017 and I have to fulfill it. If I don’t, I’ll be violating Article 87 of the Constitution and the Impeachment Law of 1950, and I’m not going to give that to the opposition,” he justified.

The electoral fund is supplied with money from the National Treasury and is intended to finance political campaigns. It was established in 2017 to offset the losses imposed by a Federal Supreme Court (STF) ruling that, two years earlier, had prohibited donations from legal entities for election campaigns.

The distribution of funds to candidates is at the discretion of each party’s leadership, which in general favor incumbent politicians rather than newcomers.

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