This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Hibapress
The Brazilian Senate Constitution and Justice Commission approved on Wednesday a proposal for a constitutional reform ending the possibility of re -election for the President of the Republic, the governors and the mayors.
The text provides in return for the extension of elective mandates at five years, against four currently, for all the political functions of the country, while establishing a progressive calendar of removing the re -election
The mayors elected in 2024 will still be able to run for a second term in 2028, but from this date, the renewal will be prohibited. Governors and the President of the Republic will be able to present their own succession one last time in 2030, subject to having been elected in 2026. From 2030, the new elected officials to these functions will no longer be re -elected.
The mandates of parliamentarians (deputies and senators) as well as municipal councilors will not be affected by this prohibition: these functions will remain open to renewal.
The proposal must now be subject to the Senate plenary session, where it will have to obtain the support of at least 49 of the 81 senators, in two laps. If it is approved, the reform will still have to go through the Chamber of Deputies to enter into force.
Adopted in 1997, the rule authorizing the immediate re-election had allowed President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to run for a second term in 1998. Twenty-three years later, the former head of state himself recognized that it was “an error” and now militates for the abolition of this instrument.
The rapporteur of the text, Senator Marcelo Castro, believes that this reform will open the way to a more dynamic political renewal and will promote the adoption of long -term public policies. “The experience accumulated in nearly thirty years of re-election has not corresponded to the expectations,” he said, denouncing in particular “electoral bias” which she, according to him, induced in the conduct of the rulers.
The approved reform also provides for the unification of the polls: from 2034, the municipal and general elections will be held simultaneously, every five years. This modification aims to reduce organizational costs and alleviate the perpetual electoral effervescence which, according to his supporters, harms governance.
“Organizing elections every two years leaves no respite either to voters or candidates,” said Otto Alencar, president of the commission, adding that the political succession permanently occupies the national agenda, to the detriment of government action.
The reform also affects senators’ mandates: their duration will gradually go from eight to five years. Senators elected in 2026 will sit for eight years, those of 2030 for nine years, before a harmonization at five years from 2034. As early as 2039, all 81 seats in the Senate will be renewed in block with each electoral deadline.
Finally, the proposal modifies the duration of the mandates of the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate: two presidents will succeed each other during the five -year parliamentary mandate, the first of three years, the second of two years, without the possibility of re -election in the same legislature.
The text arouses a large consensus within the political class, all sides combined, many senators judging that re -election constitutes a “bad choice” for Brazilian democracy.
