Moraes suspends judgment on electoral funds for black candidates

Minister Alexandre de Moraes requested a review this Friday (22) and suspended the judgment in the STF (Supreme Federal Court) on the validity of Constitutional Amendment 133/2024, which created rules for the electoral financing of black candidates and forgave previous non-compliances by political parties.

Moraes now has up to 90 days to release the process to complete the trial in plenary. Despite the interruption, the STF has already formed a majority to validate the amendment approved by Congress in 2024.

So far, six ministers have followed the vote of the rapporteur, minister Cristiano Zanin, for rejecting the actions presented by the PGR (Attorney General's Office), the Sustainability Network and the National Federation of Quilombola Associations.

Zanin was accompanied by ministers Dias Toffoli, André Mendonça, Nunes Marques, Luiz Fux and Gilmar Mendes.

The divergence was opened by minister Flávio Dino and accompanied by ministers Cármen Lúcia and Edson Fachin.

The amendment included in the Constitution the obligation for parties to allocate 30% of the resources from the Electoral Fund and the Party Fund to candidacies of black and brown people.

The text also determined the regularization of previous financial statements related to the topic, as long as the amounts not applied are compensated in the following four elections.

The actions question precisely this point. The authors maintain that the device works, in practice, as an amnesty for political parties for non-compliance with electoral financing rules for black candidates.

In the vote, Zanin stated that the text represents an advance in racial affirmative policies and highlighted that, before the amendment, there was no express constitutional provision for a minimum percentage for financing black candidacies.

According to the rapporteur, the rule does not constitute amnesty, but a mechanism for future compensation for amounts not previously applied.

Dino already voted to overturn article 3 of the amendment, understanding that the device promotes "institutionalized impunity" by removing consequences for parties that fail to comply with rules on financing black candidates.

According to Dino, the amnesty weakens the racial affirmative policy, violates the principle of material equality and represents a setback in constitutional protection against racial discrimination.

Source: CNN