Marcos Chagas Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – The president of the Senate, and former president (1985-1989), Jose Sarney, says that Brazilian politicians are “very sharply divided” over the question of coalitions in the proportional elections for federal deputies, state deputies and city councilmen (“vereadores”).

Coalitions are an essential part of the Brazilian proportional electoral system; a system with 27 political parties that makes it practically impossible for any one party to obtain anything near a majority or a candidate without a coalition to get elected.

The issue of coalitions is at the center of discussions on a broad political reform underway in Congress.

On Wednesday (April 27), the Supreme Court ruled that seats in the Congress belong to coalitions (with the result that when a deputy takes a leave of absence he will be substituted by the next most-voted candidate in the coalition of political parties that elected him; rather than the next most-voted candidate from the same political party).

Of course, it should be pointed out that political reform has been under discussion in Brazil ever since the end of the military dictatorship (1985). A good example of shifting political tides is what happened to the presidency. A Tancredo-Sarney ticket was elected in an indirect election in 1985 for a term of six years that was later reduced to five (there were legal and historical impediments to reelection at that time). Since then a series of changes in presidential terms of office have taken place with the result that now the president is elected to a term of four years with the possibility of reelection.

Sarney is in favor of ending coalitions. “With the end of coalitions, political parties will be strengthened. There is no democracy without a parliament and there is no parliament without strong parties,” he declared.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Sarney diz que parlamentares estão divididos sobre fim de coligações