The rapporteur of the mixed district vote project, deputy Domingos Neto (PSD-CE), states that the proposal, seen as a remedy against political infiltration, should advance in the House this year.
Neto says he has a positive signal from the main parties and estimates that the vote on the urgent procedure will take place by the end of November. With the approval of urgency, the project can be taken directly to a vote in the plenary, without the need to go through committees first.
“The main asset of the mixed district system is ‘accountability’, you can hold your representative accountable, as he belongs to the territory. This will put a spotlight on the election and that alone will keep people away”, says the deputy to Sheet.
This Friday (31), the president of the Chamber, (-PB), stated that for 2030 as a way to avoid the election of parliamentarians financed by organized crime.
The mixed district system divides states into geographic districts and reserves part of the seats for the candidates with the most votes in each district. The other part of the vacancies is filled using the proportional system, which is what is in force today in elections for deputies and councilors — that is, the seats are distributed according to the proportion of votes from each party.
“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 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 are those who have dominated many territories in the most populous communities in the country, directly interfering in the elections”, he added.
Motta and the rapporteur’s strategy was to wait for the date one year before the election to pass to ensure that the measure cannot be valid in 2026 and, thus, dispel resistance from deputies in voting on changes to the system by which they were elected and must run for re-election. The legislation requires that changes to electoral rules must be approved up to one year before the voting date to be valid in the next election.
In Neto’s opinion, , also contributes to boosting the change in the electoral system between .
“Without a doubt, crime has already entered politics. We have allegations of all sizes throughout Brazil. It’s a concern that everyone has, not to let Brazil become a narco-state. And, if there is a package of projects to combat the power of factions, perhaps one of the most important is the mixed district vote, which reduces and hinders their entry into politics”, says the deputy.
Last week, the rapporteur was at the meeting of the college of party leaders, when Motta announced that mixed district voting would be a priority. Neto has been talking to colleagues, leaders, party presidents and members of the Judiciary to garner support.
“I’ve already held a meeting with the seven biggest parties and felt a favorable atmosphere”, says the rapporteur.
Asked about approval by the end of the year, Neto says it is feasible, but perhaps there is a lack of time — the Chamber must move at a slower pace during the year and still has mandatory projects related to the Budget in the queue.
A project that establishes the mixed district system in Brazil, for the election of deputies and councilors, was already approved in 2017 — the author is the then senator (-SP). One of the ideas considered by the Chamber leadership is to take this text, reported by Neto, to the plenary.
Neto also says that he will also propose a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) with the same objective of introducing mixed district voting. The PEC, however, is being processed slower than the bill, as it needs to be analyzed by a special committee.
Afterwards, the PEC requires a vote in two rounds in each House, and approval depends on a three-fifths majority, while only a simple majority is required for the bill.
In the current system, says Neto, “the power of money is greater.” With the dispute between candidates from a region, it would be possible to hold debates for deputy. “The work, the service provided, the responsibility, the demands will prevail.”
“This reduces the number of candidates and the cost of the campaign, since it is carried out in a specific territory and not in the entire state”, he says.
In the rapporteur’s opinion, the country is experiencing a representation crisis. “Over time, people learn to play with the flaws in the system. We have the entry of outsiders, of organized crime.”
For the president of the Chamber, the district vote would preserve the policy of “this financing from illicit activities”.
“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.
The voting model to be proposed will have some differences in the PEC and the bill, as the second has to comply with what the Constitution currently determines, which is the proportional system.
The Senate project requires voters to vote twice, choosing a deputy from their district and then the party of their preference. In the Chamber’s proposal, both the bill and the PEC provide for only one vote.
According to the Chamber’s project, the voter chooses a candidate from their district, the votes of the candidates from each party are added together and all seats are distributed according to the proportion of votes from each party. Within the total number of vacancies that each party reaches, half will be filled with district candidates and the other half with candidates from a closed list.
In the PEC, half of the vacancies are contested between candidates from the districts and only the other half are filled according to the proportion of the total votes of each party, with names from the closed list.
