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Apart from the exaggeration - because Feliciano was legitimately elected and, whether they want to or not, he is a representative of the people, and not only of those who elected him – there is in fact a representation crisis in Brazil, but this is not caused only by those who, coming to power, forget their promises or ignore the people who elected them: the very own proportional system currently used in elections to the Legislative Power allows the result of the ballot boxes not always to contemplate the voter's desire. It is not unusual that, thanks to the system of electoral quotients distributed between coalitions, the elector votes in a candidate only to see elected who is not even the same party of his choice of candidate - and, as in many cases, the coalitions do not meet any Ideological criterion, the elected candidate will have convictions even opposed to those of the voter and the candidate he had chosen in the first place.
"The proportional system currently in force increases the cost of elections for the Legislative Power"
In addition, the proportional system currently in force increases the cost of elections for the Legislative Power, since votes must be sought throughout the city (in the case of city councilors) or throughout the state (for federal and state deputies) quite often offering an advantage to those who hold or raise large sums of money or are already in office.
Gazeta do Povo defends, among other measures, the adoption of the district vote, which has numerous advantages in comparison with the current proportional system. The division of the state or municipality into districts, within which each party or coalition indicates a single candidate for the contest to the seat in the Legislative, reduces the cost of campaigns because there will be less candidates and each of them will have to win voters from a much smaller area. But this is not the main benefit of the system: its greatest merit is to definitively bring together the population of that district and the parliamentarian that represents it, facilitating the monitoring of the one that was chosen at the polls.
However, the "pure" district vote - the one in which all seats of the Legislature are disputed under this system - also entails problems of representation. One of the problems is the risk of underrepresentation of parties that get a significant share of the electorate, but are not able to win districts. If a legend, for example, wins 15% to 20% of votes in each district, but does not elect any of its candidates, the popular will is distorted, as a significant part of the population will not be represented.
"The "pure" district vote also entails problems of representation"
Another flaw of the pure district vote is the absence of representatives of certain social groups, specific causes or minorities. Because these groups are spread across the city or state, they will rarely have enough in a district to elect a candidate attached to their group or platform. However, it is important the presence in the Legislature of people linked to causes that deserve the attention of the population.
For this reason, among the various types of district system, the best is the so-called "mixed district", in which part of the seats in the Legislature (usually half of them) is disputed in the districts, but the other part is determined by vote in caption, which opens space for the election of candidates linked to causes rather than geographical regions, and allows parties with a minority share of the electorate sympathy to be represented.
The mixed district vote, we know well, is not the panacea that will definitively eliminate the crisis of Brazilian representation. But its adoption would be an important step in bringing together voters and elected representatives, solving at least part of the problems of a society that today is not mirrored by those in the City Councils, Legislative Assemblies and the National Congress.
