The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, showed little disposition to give, in the Senate, the same progress that the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, intends to give to a project aimed at punishing research institutes that disclose different numbers from those verified at the polls. In the House, the bill can be voted on in the coming days. But once it gets to the Senate, the trend is for a broader discussion.
Pacheco considered the section of the bill referring to the penalties provided for “absolutely inappropriate”. “I foresee that the text that I saw of this project, with all due respect, is a text, especially in the criminal part, absolutely inadequate. Because it punishes a possible mistake very severely”, Pacheco told journalists this afternoon (11). According to him, it makes no sense to punish with four to ten years in prison those responsible for an institute that released a survey whose result was not confirmed days later, at the polls.
“A survey on a Thursday, the result of which [nas urnas] is not identical or within the research’s margin of error may be punished with four to ten years imprisonment. [de acordo com o projeto]. Penalty, even, superior to embezzlement, corruption. Of course, this is not legally appropriate. So we’re going to have the necessary cadence,” she added. The president of the Senate believes that the issue, once it reaches the House, should be discussed beforehand in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ).
The text is authored by the government leader in the Chamber, deputy Ricardo Barros (PP-PR). Barros stated that the intention is to punish those who “speculate in the electoral game and in the financial market” based on possible “changes in mood” of voters revealed in polls. Lira has already expressed an intention to vote on the project before tomorrow’s holiday (12), and today is the last day for that. The matter is already on an urgent basis, that is, it can go to the plenary without going through thematic committees.
Barros’ proposal was motivated by what happened in the first round of elections, on October 2. O final result showed a performance of the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, superior, even by the margin of error, to that shown in the election polls of the previous day.
STF
In the conversation, Pacheco also addressed the proposal to increase the number of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court. The matter was recently raised by Jair Bolsonaro as a possibility of legislative change if he is reelected.
“Discussions related to any and all reforms of the Judiciary must be carried out with great prudence, responsibility and even involving the Judiciary”, said the President of the Senate. He believes it is important to also listen to current STF ministers, as well as former ministers, to know their opinion on the subject. In addition, he considers the idea of expanding the STF to be “incoherent” in a scenario where government advocates defend the reduction of the STF’s competence and the downsizing of the State.
