CPI on electoral harassment supported by Pacheco should not get off the ground

Announced with the support of the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) to investigate the accusations of electoral harassment that exploded in the second round of the election should not leave the paper.

Although Pacheco managed to set up the commission with party leaders, senators say behind the scenes that the idea was to respond to businessmen and mayors suspected of the illegal practice, and to try to curb attacks against workers.

The MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) received 3,200 complaints against 2,305 companies and public managers in last year’s elections – the majority between the first and second rounds.

Until Friday (13), the MPT had signed 286 agreements through TACs (conduct adjustment term). Another 74 cases without an agreement ended up in court in public civil actions. The number may still rise, according to the agency, because the investigations are ongoing.

At the parliamentary level, the investigation was proposed by the current Minister of Mines and Energy, former Senator Alexandre Silveira (PSD-MG), and received the support of 28 parliamentarians – just one more than the minimum necessary.

Without a mandate in the next legislature, as of February 1st, Silveira and the other senators who leave the House will have their signatures discarded. The internal regulations also provide that the proposal must be abandoned, if this is the situation of the author of the request.

The report asked the Minister of Mines and Energy for a position on the CPI on electoral harassment, but there was no response. Silveira’s office also did not say whether all the signatures obtained by him in October last year were maintained.

Another parliamentarian could even ask the President of the House for authorization to assume responsibility for the CPI, but leaders believe that there is no provision for this, and that the Senate will focus on investigating who financed and encouraged the coup acts of January 8.

The House already takes for granted the installation of a CPI to investigate the invasion of Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Federal Supreme Court. The request presented by Soraya Thronicke (União Brasil-MS) received the support of 47 senators —of which 34 will still have a mandate in the next legislature.

Some of them believe that, by focusing on people who financed the trip of coup leaders to Brasília and the maintenance of the camp in front of the Army headquarters, the CPI attacking the institutions could end up bumping into businessmen who also committed electoral harassment.

Author of the proposal, Thronicke avoids relating the episodes, but remembers the maxim that everyone knows how a CPI begins, but never how it ends. “We can shoot what we see and hit what we’re not seeing,” she says.

“The scope is to investigate the funders and intellectual authors [do ataques aos Três Poderes]. It is not identifying a gentleman who broke a door, for example. This is being done by the PF (Federal Police) and the Civil Police”, says the senator.

“In addition to the material damage – and this is possible to recover –, the coup attempt to overthrow the democratic system, which is the most serious. We will focus on the bosses, on the people who are great in this story”, he completes.

The president of the Senate said on Tuesday (10th) that he considers the CPI of the attack on the Three Powers “very pertinent”. Pacheco told people close to him that Parliament needs to respond to society, and that he will support the CPI if he is re-elected to head the Senate.

Pacheco’s main opponent in the race for the presidency of the House, elected senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), told the Sheet who will also proceed with the investigation if chosen by his colleagues, as required by the bylaws.

The second round of elections was marked by reports of employers blackmailing employees into voting for President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), promising time off, bonuses of R$ 200, 14th and 15th salary or threatening employees with dismissal if Luiz Inácio won Lula da Silva (PT).

Although there is no official survey on the candidate most benefited from illegal practices, most of the reports that have come to light are from businessmen and mayors who supported Bolsonaro’s reelection.

The Attorney General for Labor, José de Lima Ramos Pereira, stated that the MPT would not disclose data by candidate because the information was irrelevant to the work of the entity.

According to a Datafolha survey, out of every 100 voters who are working, 4 say they have been pressured by their employer to vote for a candidate in past elections. However, less than 1% of those interviewed who have experienced it said they had reported it.

The survey points out that electoral harassment was more frequent among unregistered wage earners (7% of them were targeted) and among civil servants (5%). Among wage earners with registration, it was 4%.