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BRAZIL: New Scandal Rocks Election Campaign
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 19, 2006 (IPS) - Brazil's election campaign, which appeared to be sailing smoothly towards a first-round victory for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been shaken by the latest in a long string of scandals tainting the ruling Workers Party (PT).
The PT has been accused of paying 1.7 million reals (790,000 dollars) for a smear campaign aimed at implicating the candidates of the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in a corruption scandal under investigation by Congress.
Gedimar Pereira Passos, arrested in the southern city of Sao Paulo Friday carrying 790,000 dollars, was a member of the PT campaign team, and confessed to receiving the money from a party leader.
The offence is serious enough to challenge Lula's candidacy in court, but the political conditions do not exist to do so, which means an institutional crisis is imminent "because there is no normal solution for the situation that has been created," political scientist José Luciano Dias, with the Brasilia-based Brazilian Institute of Political Studies, commented to IPS.
The president could be in even bigger trouble if it is proven that the funds came from the PT, as Passos told the police, and especially if the money came out of the party's campaign coffers or from a state institution like the Banco do Brasil, said Dias.
However, there is no time for the electoral court to investigate the case and hand down a verdict before the first round of voting, on Oct. 1, which Lula was expected to win outright by taking over half of the votes, according to the latest polls.
Challenging a president-elect who won an election with more than 50 million votes would be difficult for the courts, said Dias. But, he added, the start of a second four-year term for Lula would give rise to constant criticism and a crisis of governance.
If an eventual challenge in the electoral court was successful, the second-most voted candidate would be named president-elect. That would in all likelihood be PSDB presidential candidate and former Sao Paulo state governor José Alckmin - one of the candidates targeted by the supposed smear campaign.
The inevitable breakdown of governance in that scenario could also degenerate into an all-out institutional crisis, said the analyst. In other words, he maintained, "there are no alternatives."
The PSDB and its ally, the Liberal Front Party (PFL), urged the electoral court to investigate where the money came from and whether abuse of economic power was committed in the elections. If criminal activity is proven, Lula could be disqualified from running in elections for three years.
The latest scandal, like the one that broke out last year, in which ruling party legislators were accused of paying bribes to allied lawmakers to ensure their votes on government bills, has come dangerously close to the president.
Freud Godoy, an old friend of Lula's who was forced to resign Monday as special adviser to the president's private secretary, is accused of heading the operation to pay for a smear campaign.
The scandal was triggered over the weekend by the testimony from Passos and Valdebran Padilha da Silva, both of whom were working within the PT and were arrested Friday by the police carrying 790,000 dollars in local currency and U.S. dollars.
Interrogated again Tuesday in Cuiabá, in the western state of Mato Grosso, the two repeated that the money came from the PT and was to go, according to them, to the Vedoin family, the owner of the Planam company, in exchange for files containing recordings, photos, a day planner and documents against Alckmin and the PSDB candidate for governor of Sao Paulo, José Serra.
Planam was at the centre of a scheme to sell overpriced ambulances to city governments. The owners of the company told police they had bribed lawmakers with cash and travel expenses. More than 100 legislators have been named by Luiz Antonio Vedoin in what was dubbed "the bloodsuckers scandal", which has been under investigation by parliament since June.
Vedoin made a deal with the courts to reveal everything he knew in exchange for more lenient treatment. But it was clear that he was carefully handling the information he provided, adding or retracting names to his convenience, and awakening suspicions as to the veracity of his confessions.
That has heightened the mystery surrounding the alleged smear campaign against Alckmin and Serra by the PT or some of its members.
Lula's reelection is virtually ensured, his campaign has gone smoothly, and the PT could have had no interest in creating turmoil, argued Senator Aloizio Mercadante, the only person who could have benefited by the frustrated strategy, because he is running against Serra for the post of Sao Paulo governor.
PT president Ricardo Berzoini denied any involvement by his party in the case, and clarified that Passos is not a party militant, but was hired to provide "information processing" services by one of the campaign coordinators. The whole thing is a scam mounted by the opposition, he claimed.
The incident, coming less than two weeks before the elections, has given rise to many conspiracy theories, because it is hard to understand how a party already implicated in several scandals since it began to govern the country in 2003 would get involved in something like this.
In May 2005, Roberto Jefferson, a legislator from an allied party, revealed a system of bribes in Congress. A number of heads rolled in that scandal, including several government ministers and PT leaders. Further allegations brought down the powerful former finance minister Antonio Palocci this year.
Further muddying the political scenario, it was discovered last Friday that the telephones of three electoral court judges had been tapped.
(END)
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