Court Rulings Limit Party Switching by Elected Officials

UNCLAS BRASILIA 002258 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM KCOR BR SUBJECT: Court Rulings Limit Party Switching by Elected Officials REF: BRASILIA 1670 ¶1. Summary. Recent federal court rulings have placed strict limits on party switching that are expected to strengthen large parties and could weaken traditional spoils politics. The rulings are a victory for large parties and a loss for smaller, non-ideological parties in the government coalition. End summary. ¶2. The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) decided in October that elective offices belong to the political parties, not the office holder, which should end the common practice of party switching for personal or political gain. These decisions follow an earlier decision in March which broadly interpreted existing law as generally forbidding party switching but did not define specifics such as who owns the elective office or when politicians may change parties without penalty. ¶3. The STF upheld on October 4 a decision by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) last March 27 that the offices of city councilman and federal and state deputy belong to the party, not the individual. On October 16 the TSE extended its ruling to include senators, mayors, governors, and the president. The STF ruling meant that federal deputies who switched parties after March 27 could lose their jobs and be replaced by their alternates if the losing party pursued action in the TSE. With the expanded ruling on October 16, a few senators who switched parties after October 16 could lose their seats. On October 30 the TSE gave parties until November 29 to demand the seats back. Over half of Brazil's 28 registered parties filed in federal and regional electoral courts for hundreds of lost seats ranging from the federal senate to city councils. ¶4. The decision had broad support in some of the larger parties in Congress such as the Brazilian democratic Movement Party (PMDB, a large, non-ideological party in the government coalition),Democrats (DEM, a large opposition party),and the Workers' Party (PT, lead party in the government coalition). The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB, a large opposition party) did not take a position, since it had neither a net loss nor gain in this legislature. Parties that did not welcome the decision were small and medium-sized parties in the government coalition, such as the Party of the Republic (PR, a medium-sized, non-ideological, government coalition party),Party of the Nation's Retirees (PAN, a small, ideologically weak government coalition party),and the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB, a medium-sized, ideologically weak, government coalition party). The PR, for example, had grown from about 26 to 40 federal deputies since last February, while the Socialist People's Party (PPS, a small, leftist opposition party) shrank from 26 to 13 federal deputies. ¶5. Comment: The courts have once again decided an issue that congress had failed to address. Party fidelity was part of a political reform package the congress was to have considered earlier this year, but did not because of a lack of consensus. The impact of the new party fidelity rules will be in October 2008 municipal elections, and again in October 2010 presidential elections. With a designated party switching season, the constant temptation to switch parties for personal and political gain has been eliminated, and the result should be a weakening of both the attractiveness and political power of the non-ideological "rent-a-parties" that have been associated with blatant spoils politics and past scandals such as the mensalao, the monthly allowance congressional vote-buying scheme revealed in 2005 (reftel). SOBEL