There are two candidates for the prime minister who in the middle of the electoral campaign are subject to preventive investigations, based on Anonymous complaints. In the case of Luís Montenegro, it can be at stake for violation of the exclusivity of the functions. Already the Ask Pedro Nuno Santos You have to do with the acquisition of two properties.
The Office of the Attorney General (PGR) has since 2010 has an open complaints. Paulo Canvas, president of the Prosecutor’s Office Union, admits that there is a perception that In electoral periods the volume of complaints increases.
“There is a perception that this is really happening, there is a public perception that also transmits the media, because those who make comments, which there will be a greater number of anonymous complaints in the pre -electoral periods,” he tells Euronews.
In recent weeks, the public prosecution service has been criticized for having advanced with the electral consultations of the electoral campaign. For Paulo Canvas, the The prosecution service cannot be stopped in electoral periods And see with “normality” the opening of investigations to Montenegro and Pedro Nuno.
“If we observe the calendar, we will have three elections: legislative elections, the municipal elections and the presidential elections only this year. Therefore, the activity of the prosecutor cannot stop just because we are in a pre -electoral or electoral period,” he says.
Paulo canvas too Draft that there is a violation of a reserve service With the dissemination of these preventive investigations, because the facts were public.
In addition, “when an anonymous entry to the complaint to the PGR portal, the plaintiff obtains the record of both the number of the complaint and the facts, and will be easily sent to the newspaper and if they follow PGR if this complaint exists and what happened PGR will not deny the existence,” he argues.
To his side, lawyer Paulo Saragoça da Matta admits that there are political motivations Behind complaints and believes that their dissemination in electoral periods can affect as the voters perceive candidates.
“When I use it, be it criminal investigation or preventive investigation as public information, especially in an electoral campaign, we are manipulating the electoral mass itself, the electoral school itself. We are launching this suspicion, which is always more or less strong, and Many of the citizens will be sensitive to the existence of preventive research.“, emphasizes.
The penalist attentive to another problem. “Each of the political contenders will use the public knowledge that there is a preventive investigation to attack the other context. This makes the Criminal investigation in a political shot“
The majority of complaints filed in the Office of the Attorney General are presented. In 2023, there were about 2,000 complaints, and 56% of them were presented by anonymous complaints and Only 14% gave way to the establishment of research.
These data reveal that the Most complaints have no base or sufficient evidence to give rise to criminal investigation.
“Most of the complaints are absolutely unfounded and absolutely motivated things, I would say that, for psychologically justifiable but ethically representable feelings. And it also shows the fragility of a complainant,” says Saragoça de Matta.
With respect to the object or seen of the complaint, in 2023, the vast majority (45.2%) belongs to the private sector, followed by the Public Sector, with 33.2%. This is followed by the sports sector, with 7.2%, then international trade and, finally, the incomparable sectors.
The number of anonymous complaints exceeds any of the three years under analysis the number of complaints identified.
