Election Court Backtracks And Requires Again That Candidates Disclose Assets

08/10/2018 - 13h44

Brazil's Superior Election Court (the equivalent of Federal Elections Commission) will change requirements for registering candidacies in the upcoming elections, in October. The goal is to make it mandatory for the candidates to disclose their assets to the public.

The decision was taken on Thursday night, after Folha de S.Paulo had revealed that the court changed in the computer system, restricting public access to information regarding candidates' properties and income.

In past elections, candidates needed to disclose their wealth in detail, informing if it were investments or real estate properties, with a detailed description of location and worth.

When a candidate declared to own an apartment, for example, address, square footage and other features would usually be described.

Now, the voter is only informed that the candidate has one apartment and how much the property is worth, with no information on address, city, state or square footage.

Political parties will be subpoenaed to resubmit and complement their candidates' information in case they had already submitted their assets list.

"The decision was taken on Thursday night by the court president justice Luiz Fux, and aims to make the campaign even more transparent," said the TSE in a statement.

According to the court, the decision to reduce the data volume happened last year, "in order to make the information workflow more nimble".

"The justice understood that, although the measure made the system more agile, it restricted transparency and accountability," the statement continued.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

Read the article in the original language