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 Disgust is probably the best word to sum up the Brazilian electorate's view of the current Congress which is so mired in sleaze and corruption that it has virtually given up passing legislation and spends its time investigating never-ending scandals.
The evidence of widespread participation by Congressmen in a variety of scams is such that very few Brazilian voters can have any faith in the honesty and integrity of their representatives. It is almost impossible to follow the ins and outs of the ongoing scandals at federal, state and municipal level. Last year's "bribes for votes" scandal, which virtually destroyed the PT and its reputation for honesty, was only an opener for many others. The latest Congressional scandal involves allegations that about 112 Congressmen (20% of the total) received payments from an ambulance company which supplied vehicles at inflated prices to local authorities after the Congressmen had used their influence to free the resources to pay for them. Sixty mayors and a former health minister are also alleged to have been in on the act. An official Congressional committee, known as a CPI, has been investigating the affair but it has attracted none of general interest which the CPI into last year's scandal created, in its initial stages at least. The public does not seem to be interested. The other latest scandal concerns the state of Rondônia where practically every top official - including the chairman of the legislative assembly, the president of the main court, the vice-president of the body which looks after the public accounts, the former state prosecutor and the running mate of the state governor - was arrested. They are all accused of being part of a gang which has skimmed off 100 million reais (about US$ 36 million) from public funds. The investigation found that only one of the 24 members of the state legislative assembly was not accused of involvement in the scheme. Complicated Voting System These are big cases which hit the headlines but they are repeated at every level of public administration. Faced with such in-built corruption what can the voter do? Voters could respond by voting for other parties and candidates but this will not make much difference. Under the voting system, voters do not actually choose an independent representative as they do in, say, a UK parliamentary election. Voting for the main executive positions - president, state governors and mayors of large cities - is by a simply majority. but things are very different in terms of voting for members of the House of Representatives. A system is used in which the number of valid votes cast is divided by the number of seats the state is entitled to. This gives a figure known as the quotient which is used to divide the total number of votes. This results in the number of seats per party. This system can leads to great distortions since an extremely popular candidate can give other candidates from his party a helping hand. In 2002, for example, Enéas Carneiro of the PRONA party won 1.5 million votes in São Paulo and by doing so managed to gain five extra seats for candidates who had received less votes than other candidates. An alternative way of showing displeasure is to spoil the ballot paper or cast a blank vote. This may seem extreme but, since voting in Brazil is compulsory, it is the only way out for those who want nothing to do with any individual candidate or party. The percentage of voters who either did not turn up at the polling station or spoiled or left the ballot paper blank in the last three presidential elections came to 19% and 16% respectively. There have been calls by disgruntled electors for voters to spoil or leave their votes blank in a kind of symbolic boycott but there is no organized group or lobby which makes this a serious possibility. Having said that, we can expect a higher abstention rate in the congressional than in the presidential and state governorship elections. There are signs that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is aware of this dissatisfaction with the legislature. He recently suggested that a Constitutional Assembly should be established to examine political reform. Lula said that deep political reform was necessary and raised doubts about the ability of Congressmen to reform their own house. He said society as a whole should examine the matter. Political Reform The idea was generally rejected as being unconstitutional or just an electoral ploy to distract attention from the ongoing investigations intro corruption among parties which back the government. However, support came from an unusual corner - Veja magazine which is normally vehemently opposed to the President and the PT. The magazine suggested it was an idea worth considering and said it could lead to urgent reforms being made in other areas such as the taxation and social security system. There are three basic areas which any such Constitutional Assembly would examine - ensuring party loyalty by candidates to end the present system of switching parties almost at will, public financing of election campaigns and ending the system by which Congressmen can interfere in the budget and table amendments to gain additional resources. It is unlikely that this idea will take off, but by raising it Lula has shown that he is a lot more astute than many of his opponents imagine. It also shows how he is distancing himself further from the legislature and the parties. It would not surprise me to see Lula more or less abandon the PT if, as is likely, he wins a next term of office. Lula will use his second term to try and influence or groom his successor and he knows the PT has little chance of winning the 2010 election. John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish writer and consultant with long experience of Brazil. He is based in São Paulo and runs his own company Celtic Comunicações. This article originally appeared on his site www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br. He can be contacted at jf@celt.com.br. © John Fitzpatrick 2006
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Just want to throw an idea out there, lets' divide brazil up into more manageable slices where the politicians must face the rath of the voters, rather than hiding in Brasilia in the big Brazilian inteiror. If politicians had to face their voters on a daily basis, maybe they would be more afraid. But then again, maybe not....look at Rio and SP
But these rotten busnessmen and other politicians are the problem. We need more honest people like Lula! Down with the corrupt businessmen and politicians in Brazil Viva Lula!