Chamber Records an Average of 230 Absentees in Roll-Call Voting Sessions

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In six months of activities, 230 of the 527 federal deputies who took office at some point during this legislature were absent from at least a quarter of the roll-call votes in the Chamber of Deputies. This is shown by a G1 survey with data from February 1st to July 12th, 2019.

In other words, 44 percent of the deputies missed one of every four roll-call votes in the Chamber of Deputies when they were in office. Roll-call votes are those in which the position of each deputy is noted.

There were 144 roll-call votes in the first half of the year. The survey shows that 85 percent of the votes took place on Tuesday or Wednesday, which are considered to be the most businesslike days of the week in the Chamber of Deputies.

The day with the highest average of absentees was June 17th this year. On that day, two petitions were voted on (one to withdraw the agenda and the other to postpone voting by two sessions). The two roll-call votes showed 400 absent deputies. The average for the day was 200 absentees.

The voting sessions with the lowest number of absentees were recorded in the week discussing the Social Welfare reform in the Chamber plenary, on July 10th, 11th, and 12th of this year. Voting on the Social Welfare reform basic text, for instance, had only three absentees, on July 10th. On that day, there were also seven other roll-call voting sessions.

Political scientist and researcher at FGV-SP, Humberto Dantas, says that even considering health issues and the deputies’ official travel, the number of absences is high; he suggests that some deputies use the strategy to “not commit” or to “not get on bad terms with any side.”