The Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) reported this Monday that it is investigating 300 pre-candidates who participated in the internal elections on December 18 for alleged “unusual” or “suspicious” operations in the financing of their political campaigns.
Source: EFE
The inquiries focus on the data provided by the first rendering of accounts presented on September 5 by the 77,481 candidates from the different political parties and movements, in compliance with the provisions of the electoral law, according to which all candidates must justify the origin of their campaign money.
The director of political financing of the TSJE, Christian Ruiz Díaz, explained to ABC TV thatAt least 300 of the pre-candidates declared their income and expenses in the electoral campaign to be “zero”.
Ruiz Díaz described this information as “suspicious”, noting that this means that the applicant had “absolutely nothing” of money earmarked to finance his political campaigning activities and that someone else would finance them.
In this sense, he explained that campaign managers should explain this situation, for which the law provides a period of up to 40 days after the election to deliver a new report.
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“We are going to have to know who was giving money to this candidate and, if there is inconsistency in his purchasing power, then there may be a suspicious operation there,” Ruiz commented.
The official pointed out that in case it is determined that “spurious money” has been used, the TSJE will send a “suspicious operation report” to the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Property Laundering (Seprelad).
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And it will be the Seprelad the one that could “give a firm condemnation”, added Ruiz, who refrained from specifying the identities of the candidates under scrutiny.
According to Law 6497/2019 on the Prevention of Money Laundering, the administrative sanctions to which those who violate this rule are exposed range from a “warning note” or a “public reprimand” to “removal from office with disqualification for a period from three to ten years for the exercise of management and administration positions”.
