Half of mayoral candidates in Brazil on trial

The group, Congresso em Foco, found that 86 of the 178 candidates running for top city office in Brazil’s 26 state capitals with municipal elections this weekend are currently on trial, some of them on multiple charges. Trials in Brazil’s complicated justice system can last several years.

The study followed an August Supreme Federal Tribunal ruling that allowed people on trial to run for public office, but not those convicted of wrongdoing. In its campaign to clean up politics, the association published the names of all candidates running for office who are trial. Congresso em Foco said one fourth of those candidates are running for mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic capital, and that 11 of them are facing a total 106 charges.

At the top of the trial-heavy list was former Sao Paulo governor and mayor — Sao Paulo is capital of Sao Paulo state — Paulo Maluf, who despite facing 49 trials, in 2006 was elected to Congress for the Progressive Party by a landslide.

In all, the 86 judicially “tinged” candidates face 415 trials, Congresso em Foco said.

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