Iolando Lourenço
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – Deputy Ibrahim Abi-Ackel (PP-MG), the redactor (relator) [in Portuguese, the person who writes a final report] for the Parliamentary Investigative Commission on Vote Buying (Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito (CPMI) da Compra de Votos), delivered his final report last week wherein he redacted out the possibility of systematic payments being made to members of Congress. However, his report did admit that some congressmen and officials in some political parties had received "illegal financial advantages."

Abi-Ackel declared that it was not possible to be sure if any payments were made in exchange for votes on bills the government was interested in. According to his report, the CPI's investigation found that businessman Marcos Valerio was involved in payments made to cover campaign expenses in 2002 - at all levels of govenment, from the presidency down. "Most of the payments began some five months after the campaign which leads most people to believe that the money was being used to pay for campaign expenses," said Abi-Ackel's report.

Translator: Allen Bennett