President of the Chamber will call meetings after carnival to discuss the procedure of the political and tax reform.

The president of the Chamber, Michel Temer, announced on Monday (16), that after Carnival (February 21th to 25th) two meetings will be held to discuss the procedure of political and tax reforms. “Those meetings will have no end time, because we want the voting of those themes to be the benchmark of this biennium of the Chamber’s Presidency”, he announced.

Regarding political reform, the president classified all subjects as polemic, and affirmed that they should be voted separately. He mentioned the seven suggestions sent by the government to the Congress on the last 10th, and to the bills on Constitutional amendments admitted at the end of 2008, by the Committee on the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship (CCJ), which are awaiting the establishment of a special committee for their assessment.

Sliced voting
Most of the parties support the slicing of political reform. The government’s leader, Deputy Henrique Fontana (PT-RS), said he believes in the dilution of the resistances regarding the matters, which would easy consensus regarding specific points.

The leader of PR, Deputy Sandro Mabel (GO), also defended separation. He affirmed, though, that that voting method will be sufficient to finish with the disagreements among parties regarding to the points. “PR is not favorable, for instance, to the closed lists of candidates, but we can go ahead”, he declared.

The more critical positioning regarding the bills of the government was expressed by the leader of DEM, Deputy Ronaldo Caiado (GO). For him, the Executive committed an “outrage”, by especially presenting the bill, which establishes a “window” of one month for the congresspeople exerting mandates and intending to run for the following elections to change parties.

Bills
The following suggestions on political reform by the Executive were proposed to the Chamber:

- Closed lists (Bill 4636/09): That bill provides for the adoption of the voting in parties’ lists, pre-ordained at the proportional elections, which is also known as a closed-list system.

- Vote purchase (Bill 4633/09): That bill broadens the classifications of vote purchase and updates the amounts of the applicable fines to offenders.

- Party change (Bill 4635/09): That bill establishes a “window” of one month for the parties’ change by the congresspeople exerting their mandates, and who intend to run for the following elections.

- Public financing (Bill 4634/09): That bill establishes the exclusive public financing for election campaigns, totally forbidding the parties to receive donations from people or corporations in cash or equivalents.

- Ineligibility (Complementary Bill 446/09): That bill declares ineligible all candidates condemned in collegiate decisions or in first-instance decisions res judicata.

- Colligations (Bill 4637/09): That bill forbids parties colligations for proportional elections – of councilmen and federal and states deputies. It allows colligations for major positions, such as governors, mayors, president and senators.

- A Barrier Clause (Bill on a Constitutional Amendment 322/09): That bill creates a barrier clause for political parties, according to their electoral performance. Only parties having obtained a minimum performance would have elected candidates for the positions of federal state or district deputy. 1% of the valid votes in Brazil would be necessary for federal deputies, provided that 0.5% of the valid votes in at least 2/3 of the states are also reached.

Report - Rodrigo Bittar
Editing - João Pitella Junior
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda