The sheen that once clung to the Workers Party has also been tarnished by a vast vote-buying scheme called the mensalão, or big monthly allowance, in a nod to the regular payments some lawmakers received.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's high court on Monday sentenced one of the most powerful figures in the governing Workers Party to nearly 11 years in prison for orchestrating a vast vote-buying scheme, sending shock waves through Brazil's political establishment.
And in an anticorruption crusade, he is overseeing the precedent-setting trial of senior political figures in the governing Workers Party for their roles in a vast vote-buying scheme.
But Congress could be another matter, as tensions simmer between Brazil's legislative and judicial branches over the high court's conviction of legislators involved in a vast vote-buying scandal.
José Genoino Guimarães Neto, the former president of the governing Workers Party, was sentenced to almost seven years in prison in 2012 for his role in a vast vote-buying scheme.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's Public Ministry, a body of independent public prosecutors, has begun an investigation into a claim connecting former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to a vast vote-buying scheme that involved the channeling of funds to the governing Workers Partyy.
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Just six months ago, Brazil's highest court handed down stiff prison sentences to powerful political figures found guilty in a vast vote-buying scheme, a move widely praised here as a watershed moment in a country where citizens long expected little more than impunity from politicians caught in corruption scandals.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's highest court on Wednesday allowed a new round of appeals in a trial over a vast vote-buying scheme, a decision that may allow senior political figures in the ruling Workers Party to maneuver out of hard jail time for their actions in what may be Brazil's biggest corruption scandal.
The critics loved the middle act, which dramatised a suffrage rally in Trafalgar Square with a cast of 40 actors, a painted backdrop of the square, a plastercast base of Nelson's Column and two vast "Votes for Women!" banners.
It is not only reckless but irresponsible to ignore the vast voting bloc.
What we really haven't heard from yet is that vast voting bloc known as middle-of-the-road America, attuned neither to the right nor left, passing up MSNBC and Fox for CSI TV reruns.
