The Chamber of Deputies defended in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) the changes in the rules on spending on advertising by public bodies in the first half of the election year.
The demonstration was presented in actions by the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) and the Workers’ Party (PT) against Law No. 14,356/2022, which authorizes federal, state and municipal administrations to increase advertising spending.
The text, approved by Congress and sanctioned by the Chief Executive on the 31st, also removes the creation of content related to the pandemic from the ceiling established for the cost of actions.
The subtitles say that the changes in the calculation of federal, state and municipal government spending on advertising in the first half of election years are unconstitutional.
Now, the limit will be equivalent to six times the monthly average of amounts committed and not canceled in the last three years prior to the election, with values corrected by the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA). In the previous wording, advertising expenditure could not exceed the average expenditure in the first half of the last three years before the elections.
For parties, by easing the ceiling on advertising spending in the middle of an election year, the rule violates the principle of precedence, according to which legislation that changes electoral rules can only be applied in the subsequent election if approved with at least one year of advance.
For the Legislative House, the purpose of the law is to avoid a case-by-case change in the behavior of the administrator in the electoral year in relation to the years that precede it.
“If such behavior does not change, there is no need to talk about imbalance. Thus, the mere change in the criterion for measuring the spending limit on advertising would not imply, a priori, material unconstitutionality. It should be noted that possible abusive practices would continue to be examined by the Electoral Justice, like so many other modalities of abuse, according to the contours of the specific cases ”, he said.
According to the Chamber, Brazil still needs measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, which fully justifies the authorization of institutional advertising measures.
“In addition, the text brings the expression “exclusively”, referring to advertising intended to face the pandemic, which demonstrates the zeal of the legislator in not making exceptions. The text also expressly provides that it is up to the Electoral Court to investigate possible abuses”, he explains.
Source: CNN Brasil
