Political reform: Brazil needs it.

The video recently recorded by former President Lula, advocating for a plebiscite on political reform in the country with the slogan "Brazil needs it, you want it, just sign," is yet another demonstration of the PT's engagement and leadership during decisive moments in our political history.

It is a matter of a sense of opportunity to combine the state of alert among activists – already in place in view of the campaign for the October elections – with the initiative to organize groups to seek popular support for the proposal to change the rules of the electoral game in order to reduce the interference of economic power in the outcome of elections.

I fully believe in the need for PT (Workers' Party) members to commit to the campaign for political reform by collecting signatures so that a popular initiative bill can be approved by Congress. I consider it essential that all candidates in this year's elections form support groups for the plebiscite within their campaign committees, as the party suggests.

The right to present a bill of popular initiative to Congress was a societal achievement thanks to a National Constituent Assembly convened in 1986 to prepare the Federal Constitution promulgated in 1988. It is an important mechanism for social pressure and political participation of society.

To be officially submitted, the project needs the support of at least 1% of voters (currently around 1,5 million people), distributed across at least nine states, with coverage of at least 0,3% of voters in each of the states and the Federal District, as stipulated in Article 61 of the Federal Constitution.

Our position is that, unlike the last Constituent Assembly, this one should be exclusively for political reform, in order to give the country the conditions to discuss and vote on political reform without, however, disrupting the day-to-day work of the Legislative Branch.

One of the important points in question is the pre-ordered list voting system, widely used around the world and defended by the PT (Workers' Party). This model guarantees proportionality, facilitates exclusive public financing of campaigns, creates the conditions for a rational electoral debate around programs and proposals, strengthens and democratizes parties, and makes the vote less personalized, depoliticized, and non-partisan than it is today.

The pre-ordered list voting system works as follows: in the election year, each party holds a convention and prepares its list of candidates for the legislative positions being contested.

During the election campaign, each party asks for votes for its list. The seats within the party will be distributed according to a pre-established order. If the party wins one seat, the first person on the list will be declared elected; if it wins two, the first and second will be elected, and so on.

Another extremely important point to be debated during political reform is the low participation of women in the Legislative Branch, despite current legislation guaranteeing the opposite. The PT (Workers' Party) advocates for a real increase in the presence of women at all levels of national politics, and the reasons why this does not occur are a debate we cannot avoid.

Despite making up more than half of the population in Brazil, women occupy less than 10% of parliamentary seats, and the country ranks 124th out of 145 nations on a UN list of female participation in parliaments.

One of the key points of political reform is public funding, which ultimately means holding elections under fairer conditions for everyone.

The current model for financing electoral campaigns in Brazil ends up favoring candidates supported by financiers with greater economic power. In many cases, a relationship of compromise is created between elected parliamentarians and their financiers, causing the interests of the population to become secondary in the formulation of public policies. The rule, often, is the parliamentarian's support for the approval of projects of interest to the financing economic group.

The year 2014 is a year of important decisions for the Brazilian people. The campaign for the Popular Plebiscite on Political Reform – an initiative of social movements including Consulta Popular, CUT, and the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) – supported by the PT, will distribute ballot boxes throughout the country during the week of September 7th, Independence Day, to gather the opinion of the Brazilian people on political reform.

It is necessary to participate consciously and in an organized manner. Political reform is essential for the great achievements attained by the Brazilian people in the last 12 years of democratic and popular government to continue: an era of prosperity with opportunities for all, with the raising of the level of awareness of the majority of the people, especially the workers and the excluded.

For Brazil to continue changing, this is a strategic point: guaranteeing the legitimacy of institutions and ending the interference of economic power in elections and afterwards.