Electoral Reform: what and why change?
I know that the Brazilian electoral system needs profound changes. I dare say, at the risk of exaggeration, that perhaps it deserves to be completely rewritten for current times. My short list of issues, which is not exhaustive, includes district voting, the extinction of the Senate, the reduction of party affiliations, the end of substitute parliamentarians, the prohibition to return to parliamentary office if you win a position in the executive, the limit of three consecutive mandates for exercising the same parliamentary position, the definitive removal from office for public employees who wish to run for office, and the end of compulsory voting. But as the country has been able to live with the current democratic rules, despite the bumps that have shaken its institutions since 2014, culminating with the event of January 8 of this year, it is more prudent to reform gradually.
Certain measures are more complicated to implement. The change from a presidential regime to parliamentarianism, for example, would require a profound debate. But other measures could be processed more quickly and would generate important advances in the electoral dynamics of the country.
I know that some sociological studies defend the compulsory nature of voting in the current stage of our young democracy, but this rule has long been outdated, whether in developed countries, or in Brazil itself. Here as abroad, people are going to the polling stations more out of desire, or for their own benefit, than out of obligation. The fine for non-attendance is not high, and there is always the possibility to justify your absence from town. The right to choose one's parliamentary representative succeeds the right to vote. The law obliges us to go to the ballot box, but allows us to cancel the vote. It is a contradiction in terms. I imagine that with the end of compulsory voting the tedious electoral campaigns would be more attractive, since the elector must first be convinced to go to the ballot box, and then who to vote for.
The limitation of successive mandates, to three in my proposal, would also come at a good time. If it is a fact that any system requires time to mature, it is also a fact that the parliamentary bench needs to be oxygenated from time to time. New heads and ideas need to be incorporated into the current scenario. The longer a parliamentarian stays in office, the more roots he puts down and the more accustomed he becomes to the evils of the system. In the last elections, several candidates were not reelected, which could mean an adaptation of the voters to new times. In reality, a good part of this failure was due to poor planning of campaigns and internal party betrayals. It is a vicious cycle. The more time someone spends in office, with the power of public funds to meet the needs of his constituency, the easier it becomes for him to be reelected. The system seems to have been created to make the exercise of parliamentary office a lifelong one.
Another healthy measure is the obligation to definitively resign from public office in order to be a candidate in a certain election. Judges, prosecutors, attorneys, police officers, etc. cannot, while holding public office, be candidates for parliamentary office and, if not elected, return to their previous activities. The quarantine is not enough, because the nature of the functions is incompatible. Imagine policemen filming operations for campaign purposes, or judges deciding important disputes because of the greater acceptance of their electorate. The public function becomes an electoral lever.
District voting, a system in which each parliamentarian represents a fixed set of citizens, encourages greater connection with the voter and strengthens the accountability, responsibility, and responsibility of the elected official. In addition to cheaper campaigning, since the candidate only has to travel through his or her electoral district, this system brings the candidate closer to the voter. The candidate with the most votes in his district will be elected. The current proportional system, by its complex nature of vote distribution, which privileges the formation of party bases, to the detriment of the absolute counting of personal votes, tends to make it difficult to follow the election results. The voter is not clear for which candidates his vote is counted and who were elected.
Election by last name should also be improved. A serious candidate needs to present himself by his first and last name. Zé da popoca, tiozão da esquina, Maria dos salgados could not appear in campaigns and ballot boxes. Even if the person wants to associate his or her name with the nickname in the campaign, the full name makes it easier for the voter to research the candidate. Campaigns end up becoming a laughingstock and little attention is paid to understanding who the candidate is and what his or her proposals are.
Reelection for the office of President of the Republic should also be ended. Fernando Henrique Cardoso succumbed to the siren song and exchanged the single 5-year term for a constitutional amendment that made reelection possible. It is known that he regretted this decision. The data show how difficult it is to lose reelection due to the unbridled use of the government machine in an election year. This last one, as we have seen, went beyond any imaginable limit of unbridled spending for electoral purposes. And nothing prevents it from having set a dangerous precedent for future elections. In the last two years of government, the government is governed in campaign mode, to the detriment of the country's financial equilibrium.
Another irritating issue, to say the least, is the possibility of leaving office before the end of the term to run for higher elective offices. One uses the election of an office, mayor for example, to leave the office in two years to run for a higher office, such as governor. The commitment to the original election is lost in order to focus on the new election, to the benefit of the person who decided to give up the office. Why not establish a quarantine of 4 years for the person who resigns from the position to which he was elected?
It is clear that the country needs to update its electoral rules. If there is no mature political environment for a broad reform, let modern measures be implemented every year to gradually improve the electoral system. What cannot be justified is inertia.
