Offensive against quotas has support even on the left – 09/08/2023 – Power

The package of projects that makes electoral quotas more flexible and promotes the largest amnesty for political parties in history also has support from parliamentarians on the left, especially from the PT.

The PT bench must vote in favor of the changes and assesses that only a minority may end up being against it. President Lula’s party defined that the speech will be that the agenda has no relation to the government and that the position, therefore, is strictly partisan.

On the left, traditionally a defender of quotas for women and black people, only the PSOL is openly against the proposals and threatens to legalize the changes, if approved. In PC do B, there is criticism and support.

The package includes three projects: the mini-electoral reform, which simplifies campaign accountability, among other points; the Amnesty PEC, which grants the largest pardon in history to politicians and parties, in addition to reducing campaign funds for black people; and the Women’s PEC, which establishes a minimum reserve of seats in the Legislatures, but may reduce the current quota of candidacies.

The intention of the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), is to vote on the proposals next week, with the aim of giving sufficient time for the issues to be debated in the Senate and promulgated or sanctioned by October 5th, the deadline for that they can be valid in the 2024 municipal elections.

Regarding the Amnesty PEC, a consensus has already been reached among the leaders of the House to not only move forward with the largest debt forgiveness in history, but also reduce the electoral quota for black people. In the last election it was around 50% and, with the new rule, it would drop to 20%.

The proposal was defended by the president of the PT, deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), during its processing in the committees and is signed by the government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE).

Representative Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL-RS), a critic of the PEC, even ran for president of the specific committee that debates the text, but only had one vote.

The group ended up led by PSD, PL, Republicans, Podemos and PSB, parties that have already been fined R$50 million for the punishments that the proposal, if approved, will forgive.

The Women’s PEC intends to establish a minimum quota of seats in the Legislature of 15%, a level lower than what the women’s bench managed to elect for the Chamber of Deputies in 2022, 17.7%, a measure that can be accompanied by a 30% reduction for 15% of the quota of candidates that parties are required by law to launch.

These percentages would rise throughout the elections, but the text is not yet finalized.

The mini-reform, in practice, frees candidates from presenting partial accounts during the campaign, which will mean that this information will only be made public after the elections.

The proposal also weakens the institute of federations, prohibiting punishments for one of the parties that make it up from affecting the federation as a whole, and prohibits blocking transfers of the electoral fund, the main source of campaign resources, which in 2022 distributed R$5 billion to candidates.

Internally, the PT bench understands that there is agreement with around 80% of the proposals in the electoral package, but will try to increase the proposed quota for black people and women. The intention is to reach an agreement before voting, but there is the possibility of the party presenting highlights (proposals to change the project considered directly in the plenary) on these points.

“[O partido vai orientar] in favor [das propostas]with the exception of any reduction in support for women and black people”, stated the leader of the PT bench, Zeca Dirceu (PT). The PT, however, officially endorses Amnesty’s PEC, which includes pardoning all parties that did not allocate the minimum funds for black people and women in the 2022 elections.

PSOL will vote against the projects, threaten to go to court against the proposals and say that it did not participate in the agreement with Lira through Amnesty’s PEC.

“In addition to granting amnesty to those who did not meet the quota and providing resources for black and female candidates in the elections, they intend to reduce their presence, in a retrograde initiative. They legislate to disregard the legislation. They discredit the policy,” said deputy Chico Alencar (PSOL -RJ).

In PC do B, there is an understanding that the electoral law needs improvement and a positive assessment of the reservation of seats for women. On the other hand, the party must vote against the Amnesty PEC, considering it an error.

“It seems appropriate to establish a reserve of vacancies for women. And the important thing is that it has a national dimension, it will guarantee representation of women in Municipal Chambers and Legislative Assemblies”, stated Orlando Silva (PC of B-SP).

“The best path would be a dialogue with the TSE and finding a path that preserves political parties without harming the promotion mechanism for black and women’s candidacies”, he added, regarding Amnesty’s PEC.

The women’s bench mobilized to try to avoid the reduction and ensure that the 15% quota of seats does not cancel out the 30% of funds — if this happens, the assessment is that it would be an improvement.

The same happens with the black bench, which even met with the mini-electoral reform working group to ask that the quota reduction not be included in the project — the proposal, however, ended up being incorporated into Amnesty’s PEC.

At the same time, deputies are already working to align the points of the proposals with the Senate, to speed up the processing. Last Tuesday (5), for example, Elmar Nascimento (União Brasil-BA), one of Lira’s main allies, met with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) to debate the topics.

The two quotas, gender and race, have the formal objective of encouraging the participation of women and black people in politics. Despite being a majority in the population, these two groups are a minority in the Executive and Legislative branches.

Both quotas are heavily criticized by party leaders on the grounds that it is difficult to bring together women interested in entering politics, in addition to there being strong internal pressure to maintain the privilege of distributing funds to white candidates.