Brazil: About 70 parliamentarians switched parties

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – During the 30 days of the “party window” period, the deadline for federal or state deputies to switch political parties to run in Elections 2022 without losing their mandate for party infidelity, about 70 federal deputies changed their parties. Since 2018, by decision of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the change of party can only be made by the parliamentarian at the end of the current term.

With the end of the deadline on April 1, the new composition of the benches placed the PL as the party with more members in the House, with 73 deputies. The number is more than double what the party had at the beginning of the legislature when it had 33 deputies. A large part of the PL’s new deputies came from União Brasil, a party created by the PSL and DEM merger.

The Workers’ Party (PT), which before the window had already competed for the position of the largest bench with the PSL (now União Brasil), ended the window with 56 deputies, compared to 54 at the beginning of the legislature. Before the window, União Brasil had 81 deputies but now has 47. Other parties that grew were PP, which went from 38 to 50 deputies, and the Republicans, from 30 to 45 deputies.

PROS and Avante gained one deputy each and now have nine and eight deputies, respectively. The parties Rede, with one congressman, and Novo, with eight, had no changes in the number of members.

Among the main parties, the PSD went from 35 to 43 members and the MDB from 34 to 35. The PSB shrank – its 32 seats went to 25; the same situation as the PSDB, which went from 29 to 27 members, and the PDT, which went from 28 to 20 members.

The PSOL also lost members, currently with nine deputies, one less than at the beginning of the legislature; PV, which went from four to three deputies; PCdoB, which was left with seven deputies, against the nine at the beginning of the legislature.

Solidariedade also saw its bench decline, from 13 to 11 members; PTB, from ten to six members; and Cidadania, which lost one member and now has seven members.

The so-called “party window” opens for 30 days in each electoral cycle, allowing the change of legends without implying party infidelity and consequent loss of mandate.

The one-month period is foreseen in the Law on Political Parties (Law 9.096/1995, Article 22-A). According to the law, the window opens every election year, always six months before the election. This year, the electoral calendar established the period for switching parties from March 3 to April 1.

The rule only applies to proportional elective mandates, such as deputies and councilors. The understanding is that, in these cases, the seats in the legislative houses belong to the party and not to the incumbents.

The window was regulated and inserted in the electoral calendar in the 2015 mini-reform to allow the re-accommodation of party forces before the test at the polls.

The movements serve as a thermometer for the candidacies, indicating how each congress member reads the electoral landscape and the polls.

This year, only deputies were allowed to change their parties because, in 2018, the TSE established that only legislators who are at the end of their term are entitled to use the party window. Thus, the current councilors can only change their parties before the next municipal elections in 2024.

The party window is one of the only hypotheses for deputies to change parties while still in office. The others are the creation of an acronym, end or merger of the party, deviation from the party program, or severe personal discrimination. Any change of party affiliation that does not fit these reasons can lead to the loss of the mandate.

With information from Agência Brasil