The president of , (-PB), stated that he will promote the change of the electoral system to mixed district voting in 2030 as a way to avoid the election of deputies financed by organized crime.
“We are going to face the discussion about changing our country’s electoral system, mainly for proportional elections. This will be an issue that I will put on the agenda from now on. […] I think it is entirely possible, for the 2030 elections, for us to think about changing the electoral system”, said Motta, this Friday (31), in an interview with GloboNews.
“If not, we will have parliamentarians being elected financed by organized crime, who are those who have access to cash, who have dominated many territories in the most populous communities in the country, directly interfering in the elections”, he added.
With mixed district voting, he argues, the policy would be “preserved from this funding from illicit activities.” “Organized crime has infiltrated several layers of Brazilian society, it is natural that in politics these organizations try to camouflage their interests.”
“If this is not done, tomorrow, who knows, we will have the president of the Chamber and the Senate having been financed by organized crime and articles being reported with this interest. We will be losing the country to these factions”, said Motta.
He also said that he waited a year before the 2026 elections to start addressing this issue in order to make it clear that the change would not be for the next election. The legislation determines that changes to electoral rules must be approved up to one year before the voting date to take effect in the next election.
“We’ve already seen that this doesn’t work in Parliament. No parliamentarian likes to change the electoral system in which they were elected,” he said.
Motta cited mixed district voting and list voting as alternatives, models that, according to him, could “preserve the policy of criminal financing.”
According to the President of the Chamber, the model that has the most support among parliamentarians and the main parties, in addition to civil society, is the mixed district vote.
The mixed district system divides states into geographic districts and reserves half of the seats for the highest vote-getters in each district. The other half of the seats are filled using the proportional system, which is what currently applies in elections for deputies and councilors — the voter chooses from a closed list of candidates drawn up by the parties.
In the interview, Motta also defended measures to combat organized crime and highlighted projects approved by the Chamber in the area of public security.
