Irregularities found in political donors in Brazil

At least 35 deceased people have appeared on a list of 114,526 people making financial contributions to politicians ahead of Brazil's October municipal elections.

However, this might be simply the tip of the iceberg as a report published Tuesday by Brazil's highest electoral and accounts court revealed that irregularities were found in 34 percent of donations.

Of 114,526 donations analyzed, 38,895 presented errors, while 1,426 spending reports from candidates were flagged as suspect, from a total of 60,900.

Alongside the 35 dead contributors, thousands were found to not match the levels of income of the contributors, including many coming from people who are receiving assistance from the government for not earning a minimum wage.

Gilmar Mendes, the president of Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court, confirmed that if candidates were found to have accepted donations from dead people or from people without the economic conditions to make such contributions, they would be suspended from the elections.

Current legislation allows voters to donate up to 10 percent of their declared income from the previous year to campaigns.

However, given rampant corruption in past campaigns, a new Brazilian electoral law forces each candidate to declare every donation and every expense made within the campaign every 72 hours.

Furthermore, political donations from companies have also been banned to crack down on corruption.

The municipal elections on Oct. 2 will see 492,700 candidates run to be mayor or stand on the council of the country's 5,568 municipalities. Enditem