2017.08.1713:41:00UTC+00BRAZIL: Political Reform To Be Voted Next Week In Lower House

The lower House of the Brazilian Congress will vote next week on a controversial political reform bill.

The most debated points are the increase in the percentage of public money that goes to the funding of the elections and the "district," which determines the election of lawmakers by majority vote.

Congressman Jos? Guimar?es (PT-CE), the minority speaker in the House of Representatives, said that lawmakers will still try to add a clause aimed to lower the amount that should be allocated to the fund for electoral campaigns.

The proposition approved by a special House committee last week defines at 0.5% of the current government's net revenue the amount that should be passed on to the fund, (around R$ 3.5 billion, or US$ 1.1 billion).

However, the so-called "district" was the main target of criticism in the debates. According to the proposition, lawmakers will be elected by the majority system in 2018 and in 2022 and by the "mixed district" system thereafter.

Currently, lower House representatives are chosen by a ratio system, that depends on the global vote of parties and coalitions.

In the majority system, the most voted should be elected, while in the mixed district, half of the elected representatives will be composed by the most voted in the district and the other ones will emerge from a list defined by the political parties. Some parliamentarians, such as the PT speaker, Carlos Zarattini (SP), argue that the current system is still better than the proposed system.

"The system called districts disorganizes parties and prevents party ranks renewal," he said. Others say that the "district" is unnecessary as a transition to the "mixed district." Meanwhile, the representative Julio Lopes (PP-RJ) defend the proposal. "The district is easier for society to understand, and if it's easier to understand, it's easier to participate," he said.