On Monday (2), the president of the Chamber, Michel Temer, affirmed to a group of substitute councilmen and councilwomen that the Bill on a Constitutional Amendment (PEC) ) 333/04, which makes 7,000 more positions available at the municipalities’ chambers, needs to have its procedure restarted at the House. The members of the Movement for the Re-composition of Municipal Chambers allege that 7,343 substitutes are waiting for the publication of the amendment to take immediately office as councilmen and councilwomen. Michel Temer, though, said it is impossible to fulfill that claim.

“There are no legal conditions to fulfill that. The Chamber cannot do anything at this moment. When the PEC comes back with the amendments performed at the Senate, we will be able to process it again, or be it: start by the Committee on the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) and then go through a special committee, and then to the House”, he explained.

Deputies and senators approved the increase of positions; but, since the Senate rejected the reduction of expenses in the municipalities’ Legislatives, the president of the Chamber at that time, Arlindo Chinaglia, refused to enact only the increase in the amount of councilmen and councilwomen, since that measure was linked to the saving of resources. To guarantee the partial enactment, the Senate filed and injunction in December at the Supreme Court (STF).

Proportionality
One of the coordinators of the Movement for the Re-composition of Municipal Chambers, Fábio Persi, argued that it is important that the amount of councilmen and councilwomen is proportional to the population of each municipality.

“It is not possible to accept that a municipality such as Governador Valadares (Minas Gerais) has only 14 councilmen and councilwomen and keeps receiving funds to pay 21 of them. The proportional representation by means of the councilmen and councilwomen is being harmed”, he said. “We want the strengthening of democracy and the immediate enactment of the PEC. We are 7,343 substitutes, but represent 2,000,000 direct voters and a population that is equivalent to nearly 5,000,000 people”, he added.

The bill targeting the re-composition of the amount of councilmen and councilwomen started to be processed in 2004, after the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided to eliminate 8,000 seats, without, though, decreasing the funding to the Municipal Legislatives.

Report - Alexandre Pôrto/Rádio Câmara
Editing - João Pitella Junior
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda