Chamber prepares mixed district vote for deputies to stop factional invasion

In the coming weeks, the Chamber of Deputies is preparing to present a political reform project that will change the Brazilian electoral system, establishing mixed district voting for deputies. The announced objective is to make it difficult for members of criminal factions to enter the Legislature, according to the ongoing debate. The expectation is that the text will be voted on later this year by the National Congress, according to information from the newspaper Valor Econômico.

Currently, the electoral system for deputies follows the “open list” format, in which voters choose their candidate from a wide menu. In the proposed system of mixed district voting, voters would vote twice: once for a candidate from their district and once for a party of their preference. Half of the seats would be filled by the most voted in each district; the other half, by party proportionality, based on the total votes received.

The rapporteur of the proposal, deputy Domingos Neto (PSD-CE), signaled, however, that the idea could be a single vote, where when voting for a candidate the voter automatically also votes for the party to which the candidate belongs. “More than 80% of voters don’t even remember who they voted for. We are experiencing a gigantic representation crisis. As there are thousands of candidates in each state, the candidate who eventually came from organized crime, you don’t even know who he is”, he told the G1 portal

The changes, if approved, would only be valid from the 2030 elections onwards, as the new rules need to be implemented at least one year before the election. Despite the deadline, the discussion is already gaining momentum: party leaders and the Chamber’s special committee have intensified the debate on the model.