Senate may approve amendment on open voting.

Mariana Jungmann
Reporter from Agência Brasil

Brasilia - The Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 43/2013, which ends the secret vote of parliamentarians, may be on the Senate voting agenda this week. The so-called Open Vote PEC passed, last Thursday (26), the third of the five discussion sessions necessary for the first round vote in the House.

The text approved by the Chamber of Deputies provides for the end of secret voting in all votes, so that parliamentarians must vote openly in the selection of the president of the Board of Directors, in presidential nominations for positions in the Executive and Judiciary branches, in the review of presidential vetoes, and in impeachment proceedings.

Favorable to the proposal, the rapporteur for the matter in the Senate, Sérgio Souza (PMDB-PR), acknowledges that there is no consensus in the House on all points of the PEC (Proposed Constitutional Amendment). He claims that the majority of senators only agree with the end of secret voting regarding the revocation of mandates. According to the rapporteur, there is concern that open voting in other situations could lead to embarrassment for parliamentarians, harming their independence from Executive and Judicial authorities.

“In the nominations of authority, the secret ballot would be imposed as a measure intended to protect the senator of the Republic from future and hypothetical retaliations to be carried out by the same person, when sworn into the office for which they were nominated. It would also be intended, in this circumstance, to avoid weakening the nominee in the exercise of their duties, in the event of the approval of their name by a narrow majority,” explains Souza in his report already approved by the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee.

The rapporteur proposes that PEC 43 be approved only addressing the end of secret voting for the removal of mandates. With this, open voting in other deliberations will be addressed in a separate proposal, which will be discussed at a more leisurely pace.

As an example of those who disagree with the complete disclosure of parliamentary votes, Senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDB-SP) complained that the matter is about to be put to a vote without sufficient consideration. “We, the Brazilian Congress, are heading towards a new kind of suicide, which is institutional suicide. The Brazilian Congress is heading towards self-immolation, towards voluntarily losing prerogatives that guarantee its independence and its position within an intricate game of balance between the Powers, the Legislative and the Executive, when it prepares to vote without the slightest institutional reflection, merely interpreting the voice of the streets,” argued the PSDB leader in the House.

In contrast, Senator Walter Pinheiro (PT-BA) believes there is a delay in voting on the Open Vote Amendment. Pinheiro pointed out that many parliamentarians use the prerogative of secret voting to hide personal interests and positions. "The only way voters can truly follow our mandates is to see how we materialize our proposals through voting," the senator from the Workers' Party emphasized.

If everything goes according to the party leaders’ plans, the fourth discussion session of the PEC will take place on Tuesday (1st) and the last debate session and the vote on the proposal will be on Wednesday (2).