BRAZIL: The former treasurer of Brazil's ruling political party made the first official link between president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 2002 election and illegal campaign funds on Thursday, as the country's bribes-for-votes scandal escalated.
In June, allegations surfaced that Mr Lula's aides and the ruling Workers' Party used undeclared campaign funds to buy allies in Congress and in the 2002 election that brought Mr Lula to power.
In testimony before a congressional panel, Workers' Party ex-treasurer Delubio Soares said illegal funds - undeclared to tax and electoral authorities - raised by publicist Marcos Valerio, the so-called bagman in the bribery scandal, made their way into the Lula campaign via allied party politician Mr Ciro Gomes, who is now the social integration minister.
Mr Gomes and his Popular Socialist Party were running against Mr Lula in the first round of the 2002 presidential election, but threw their support behind him in the second round.
Mr Soares said that he was responsible for the funding scandal and Mr Lula knew nothing about it.
But illegal money in Mr Lula's campaign could be used as grounds for a presidential impeachment.
The scandal has thrown the government into the worst crisis since the impeachment of Fernando Collor in 1992.
In response to the continuing scandal, a Brazilian senate commission has approved emergency electoral reforms designed to rein in illegal campaign financing and influence-peddling that has sparked the current crisis. - (Reuters)