Secret vote by members of parliament could go to plenary session by July.

Iolando Lourenço*
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia - The Chamber of Deputies is expected to vote this semester on ending secret voting in legislative deliberations. Today (5), during a meeting with party leaders, the president of the House, deputy Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB-RN), promised to schedule the proposals that end secret voting before the July recess.
"I made a commitment. The matter is not prohibitive, it does not constrain the House, on the contrary. Before the recess, I will indeed schedule this matter for debate," said Henrique Alves. Currently, two proposed amendments to the Constitution (PECs) dealing with the subject are under consideration.
The oldest is Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 349 of 2001, which proposes open voting for all deliberations in Congress. It was approved in 2006, in the first round, by the Chamber of Deputies and still needs to be voted on again by the Chamber before going to the Senate. The other is Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 196 of 2012, which ends the secrecy of votes for the loss of parliamentary mandates in cases of misconduct and criminal conviction.
"I pointed out to the leaders that it cannot be an emotional issue, a matter of easy speeches, especially since there are 28 different types of votes, and each one should analyze the merits of the case," said the Speaker of the House.
Tomorrow (6), the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Open Voting will meet to discuss actions for the approval of open voting in the National Congress. "PSOL is particularly in favor of open voting in all votes, but if there is an understanding among the members of the front for open voting only in cases of impeachment, we will work in this direction, which is a great step forward for transparency in the National Congress," said the coordinator of the front and president of PSOL, deputy Ivan Valente (SP).
Attempts to approve the end of secret voting in all parliamentary votes are mainly hampered by a lack of consensus regarding open voting for the review of vetoes and the election of members of the presiding officers of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the first case, the fear is that a position contrary to the interests of the Executive branch would leave parliamentarians vulnerable to retaliation. The same would occur in the election of the Legislative leadership.
* Contributed by Ivan Richard
Editing: Fabio Massalli