Brazil’s minister of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Felix Fischer, accepted the accusation of early electioneering against Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and presidential hopeful and chief of staff, Minister Dilma Rousseff, and imposed a fine of 5,000 reais (US$ 2,834) to each.
The vote happened in response to an appeal filed by the opposition against the decision of assistant minister Joelson Dias who had rejected the initial charge. The trial, however, was not completed since minister Fernando Gonçalves has requested the whole case for examination .
The political parties PSDB, DEM and PPS, all from the opposition, based their charges of propaganda in advance on speeches made by Lula and Dilma Rousseff at the inauguration of the Setúbal dam, in Minas Gerais, on January 19, 2010.
Brazil’s electoral law establishes that electioneering for the October general election can only start on July 5. Several previous charges of illegal propaganda against Lula and his pick for president were dismissed by the electoral justice. This is the first one that has some chance of sticking.
According to the lawsuit, the president said in his speech, that it’s important that the government inaugurate the “largest possible number of public works” until the end of March to “show who were the people who helped make things in this country.”
The vote of the Minister Joelson Days refusing the initial charges had been supported by ministers Ricardo Lewandowski and Carmen Lucia. Felix Fischer, in turn, asked to examine the case and presented this Thursday his dissenting opinion.
His argument: “Up to three months before the election, officials can participate in inaugurations, but they cannot instill a candidate in the minds of voters. Even if there is no explicit request of vote, it is disguised propaganda.”
