The Public Electoral Ministry (MPE) requested the impeachment and ineligibility of the governor of Alagoas, Paulo Dantas (MDB), and the vice-governor, former federal deputy Ronaldo Lessa (PDT), for abuse of political and economic power with the launch of the “Pact Against Hunger” program on the eve of the 2022 elections.
In addition to the two, the MPE says that the current Minister of Transport, Renan Filho (MDB), would also have benefited politically from the program.
Two months before the launch of the program, in June 2022, the minister, who is the son of senator Renan Calheiros (MDB), had left the state government to run for the Senate.
As Renan Filho did not hold any public office at the time of the program’s launch, the accusation against him was dropped from the case.
The action in the MPE was proposed by the Alagoas Merece Mais Coalition, a political group composed of allies of the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), which rivals Renan Calheiros’ political group in the state. The governor of Alagoas is an ally of Calheiros.
According to the MPE’s accusation, “those investigated made improper use of the public machinery of the government of Alagoas for clearly electoral purposes through the free distribution of goods, on the eve of the event, outside legal guidelines, in an act that constitutes prohibited conduct and abuse of political and economic power”.
In a press release, the government of Alagoas said that “the State Attorney General’s Office presented documents that prove that the delivery of basic food baskets had already been in budget execution since 2020” and that the state “was under a serious emergency situation, formally recognized, due to the heavy rains that hit its territory and the food insecurity situation of its population, as well as that of the country itself, which recorded 33 million people going hungry that year”, he stated.
“The work to combat hunger aims to tackle this problem that affects thousands of people from Alagoas affected by extreme poverty, significantly intensified during the Covid pandemic period, as shown in CadÚnico records”, said the government in another part of the note.
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Infographics Gazeta do Povo[Clique para ampliar]
