I apologize to the reader for repeating me and (PLP 112/2021).
Which, which is being processed, proposes to unify all electoral legislation in a single document. This includes the revocation of the laws of political parties and the former Electoral Code (1965) among other standards. Although the initiative is welcome, the text not only compiles current legislation: it brings significant changes in the electoral rules, many of which are unnoticed.
The project deals with topics ranging from the registration of parties and voters to the campaign spending ceiling, accountability system, voting research research and reservation of places for women in the candidate lists and legislative houses.
I mentioned in the last column the reserve of 20% of vacancies in legislative houses for women. But in the transitional provisions, the application of this rule is provided for “20 (twenty) years from the first election following the publication of this law.” Even more serious, it has immediate effect the change in the text that exempts parties from filling a minimum of 30% of vacancies in the lists of candidates with “candidates of each sex”.
Article 859 determines that: “If there is no minimum filling of vacancies for each genre, the remaining vacancies should be empty, and the filling with the other genre is prohibited.” Only if the vacancies are not filled by candidates of another genre can parties be punished. Today, the 30% rule focuses on the total of actually registered candidates, not the maximum size of the list.
In addition, the code amnesty the parties of payment of fines for rejected accounts in past elections and allows 60 to 180 months installments in cases that return are required or fines are maintained.
Another controversial point is a. The new wording obliges the institutes to inform “the percentages of voting intent on the candidate elected in the last three stimulated polls conducted by the same institute in the previous election, in confrontation with the percentage of votes calculated by the Electoral Court, in their respective circumscription, in the elections for the positions of mayor, governor, senator and president of the Republic.”
The purpose would be to offer the voter a goal of reliability, but this ignores that the objective of opinion polls is not to predict the result of the ballot box (except in the case of the “ballot box”), but to be a portrait of the moment. Many even use research to make strategic decisions: to abandon their favorite candidate, but that the voter thinks unfeasible, and redirect the vote for his second option.
This movement is common in the final stretch of, often the eve of the election. Imputing error on polls because of natural changes in voter behavior is only for some political leaders who would like to restrict access to information. Some would prefer to limit this information to political elites, which in addition to public research also have access to private consumer research and trackings.
Although the new code has many merits, and I do not deny it, it is no coincidence that deputies and senators reserve for the last minute the analysis of projects of this magnitude. The hasty votes divert the focus of the points that party leaders prefer to go unnoticed.
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