The vice-president of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, said on Monday, August 24, that the country's electoral model has "failed" and defended a gradual shift from pure proportional representation to a mixed district system. He spoke during a lecture at the São Paulo Municipal Court of Accounts (TCMSP), at an event of the National Congress of Public Law, External Control and Public Governance, according to Estadão and Estado de Minas.

In his view, the current system favors the election of lawmakers with no ties to their parties and helps weaken Congress.

"This electoral model has failed, because it produces candidates and elected officials with no ties whatsoever to parties, who care much more about livestreaming from the lower house than discussing the bill being voted on. [Candidates and elected officials] who weaken Congress," Moraes said.

Gradual transition

Under a mixed district system, part of the seats is elected directly in geographic districts and the rest is allocated according to each party's vote share. In Moraes' assessment, the format would strengthen the bond between voters, candidates and parties. He argued the change should start with a smaller share of seats and expand in later elections.

"I have defended for a long time, since my days as a prosecutor, that Brazil leave the pure proportional system and move to a mixed district system. We can start with 30% district seats. Then, in the next one, 40%, 60%," he said. Brazil currently elects federal, state and district deputies and city councilors by proportional representation, while senators and executive officeholders are chosen by majority vote.

Moraes linked the electoral system to Brazil's governability problems and said the 1988 Constitution was designed for a democracy with strong parties. "If we do not have strong parties, we will always have this governability problem," he said. According to the portal Claudio Dantas, he also defended reviewing party financing rules as part of a broader political reform. In the same lecture, the justice cited the two presidential impeachments since 1988 and the January 8, 2023 attacks on the seats of the three branches of government as crises the institutions overcame. "There is no safer path to maintaining democracy, even with all its problems, than strengthening the institutions," he said, defending reforms across the three branches, including faster court rulings on cases involving public works and investments.

Moraes also said Brazil was "naive" to believe that big tech companies were neutral and argued that platform algorithms can influence electoral debate. Finally, he defended coordinated action by the police, prosecutors and the courts against organized crime, with faster and better coordinated responses.