Electoral fund hinders political renewal, assesses Cristiano Noronha, from Arko
The increase in electoral abstention and the difficulty of political renewal in Brazil are symptoms of a system that, according to political scientist Cristiano Noronha, vice-president of Arko Advice, favors the maintenance of groups already established in power.
In participation in the WW Especial program, on CNN Brasil, Noronha stated that the Brazilian electorate has shown increasing disenchantment with politics given the perception that their problems are not effectively faced.
"When we look, over time, at the level of abstention and non-attendance at the polls in Brazil, this has increased. It is very clear that people are becoming disenchanted", he stated.
For him, although there is a desire for renewal, a sense of frustration prevails among voters. "People want renewal, but they feel frustrated. They feel that their problem is not being addressed."
Noronha also argued that Brazilian electoral rules end up strongly favoring re-election, especially in the Executive. According to him, presidents of the Republic have historically managed to improve their popularity ratings in election years through increased public spending and measures with electoral impact.
"If you look historically, the President of the Republic has considerably improved his popularity ratings. Why? Because he spent a lot of money," he said.
In Cristiano Noronha's assessment, the logic of high re-election is repeated in other positions. "In Brazil, you have a very high re-election rate in state and municipal executive powers. For deputy and senator, the same thing", he highlighted.
The political scientist also criticized the public campaign financing model, adopted after restrictions on business financing. For him, the change increased the barriers for the emergence of new parties and competitive candidacies.
"When private campaign financing was banned, they said: 'the solution is public financing'. This created even more difficulties", he assessed. According to Noronha, newly created parties are left without immediate access to resources from the electoral fund, currently worth R$4.9 billion.
"You create a party and it initially doesn't have access to this mountain of resources to divide between parties and campaign", he criticized.
According to him, the distribution of these resources also reinforces the power of party leaders. "This money is shared between the candidates as decided by party leaders", he explained.
For Noronha, the result is a political system that creates self-preservation mechanisms and makes structural changes difficult. "It is not a system that allows renewal, that opens up the possibility of oxygenation. It is a system that creates defense mechanisms", he added.
"When there is an attack from one side, a solution comes from the other so that this system can perpetuate itself. So, it is in fact a trap that we find ourselves in today", he concluded.
WW Special
Presented by William Waack, the program is shown on Sundays, at 10pm, on all CNN Brasil platforms.
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*Published by Jorge Fernando Rodrigues
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