Brazil’s Congress Approves $542 Million to Fund Political Campaigns
- Size of fund downscaled amid public outcry following scandals
- Brazil elections for Congress, president to be in Oct. 2018
Empty congressional seats are seen as the lower house reads the second complaint against President Michel Temer in Brasilia, Brazil, on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. Last week, Temer was charged for a second time for alleged obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy.
Photographer: Andre Coelho/BloombergBrazil’s lower house of Congress approved the use of taxpayer money to finance election campaigns amid wide-spread disillusionment with the country’s political class in the run-up to 2018 general elections.
The Chamber of Deputies late on Wednesday approved a 1.7 billion reais ($542 million) fund that will be allocated according to each political party’s representation in Congress, according to the lower house’s news agency. Legislators cut the size of the fund from an initially proposed 3.6 billion reais amid a public outcry after years of corruption scandals involving kickbacks to politicians from public contracts.