Jose Roberto Arruda, the governor of the federal district of the capital Brasilia, is pictured in video footage that surfaced last Friday apparently accepting large amounts of money during his election campaign in 2006.
Federal police said they suspect that Arruda, a member of the right-wing Democratas Party (DEM), received undeclared cash from companies that wanted contracts from his administration and distributed the money to political allies.
Other DEM politicians also are seen in the footage pocketing wads of cash.
The scandal could deliver a blow to the main opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), which had been expected to form an alliance with the small but influential DEM party in a bid to unseat the ruling Workers’ Party (PT) in next October’s presidential vote.
Both the PSDB and the PT have also been snared in kickback schemes in recent years, prompting calls from some prominent politicians to overhaul the country’s election laws to require that campaigns be financed only by public funds.
The images of Arruda and other DEM politicians stuffing stacks of cash in their pockets renewed those calls and sent shock waves through the opposition.
“The scandals of the PT and PSDB didn’t have revelations as ugly as this,” said Fabio Wanderley Reis, a political scientist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
“This will restrict the opposition’s argument (in the elections),” he said, adding that no party is now likely to campaign on an anti-corruption platform next year.
Seeking to distance itself from the scandal, the PSDB issued a statement yesterday saying its members would resign their posts in the Arruda administration. Six other parties said they would demand his impeachment on Wednesday.
Arruda’s party opened an internal investigation yesterday to decide whether he should be expelled from its ranks, a process that could take 10 days.
