Despite attempts by deputies and senators linked to the former president of blocking the return of legislative work last week, the second semester promises to be agitated in.
The urgency to guide topics relevant to the congressmen themselves, especially the rules for the elections of October 4, 2026, which are governed by the principle of annuality, should set the tone in the coming weeks.
There are two main projects on this theme that will master the agenda: the new Electoral Code and the decision on the maintenance or overthrow of the presidential veto to the bill that provides for an increase from 513 to 531 chairs in the House, as well as rules to ensure proportionality between the population of the states and the number of representatives.
The Complementary Bill (PLP) 112/2021, which updates the Electoral Code, is being processed since September 2021.
The analysis of the text, which quickly advanced under the baton of (-al) and Margarete Coelho (PP-PI), only gained new impetus recently after the change in the Senate presidency.
The proposal, which should be voted on soon in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) and the Senate Plenary before returning to the House, brings positives and negatives, demanding attention mainly to the rules of party transparency and accountability.
With regard to electoral rules, our focus today, the code presents an innovation: the reserve of at least 20% of the municipal chairs, legislative assemblies and the House of Representatives for women.
Although 20% seems a modest and insufficient goal, and perhaps it is just a record of how great is our delay, we cannot disregard that 1 in 7 municipalities in the country has no councilor women.
The text is rigorous: Article 145, paragraph 7, establishes the nullity of the elections for the legislative houses in which this percentage is not reached.
The code also takes up the 2015 rule that limits the distribution of legislative chairs only to parties that reach the electoral quotient.
Lower vote parties will only participate in the distribution of vacancies in three specific scenarios:
(1) When even after the distribution of chairs by the partisan quotient calculation and the rule of the highest (leftovers), exclusively among parties with voting equal to or greater than the electoral quotient, chairs remain to distribute;
(2) If only one party obtains the electoral quotient, the party with immediately lower vote should also participate in the distribution of chairs in the leftovers phase;
(3) When no party reaches the electoral quotient, a situation in which the chairs will be distributed according to the method of the highest average among all parties that disputed the claim.
These changes seem small, but will have a considerable impact on the composition of legislative houses, reducing party fragmentation and strengthening large and average parties, especially considering in conjunction with the performance clause, which limits access to party fund and free electoral propaganda on radio and TV.
Gift Link: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release seven free hits from any link per day. Just click on F Blue below.
