António Vitorino, Marques Mendes and Ana Gomes among the 25 personalities who sign a manifesto for the reform of the electoral system
A manifesto that calls for a reform of the electoral system that allows “greater personalization of mandates”, brings voters closer to elected officials and reduces wasted votes is signed by 25 personalities, including António Vitorino and Luís Marques Mendes.
According to the manifesto that Lusa had access to, entitled “Reform the Electoral System: Renew Democracy”, half a century after the 25th of April and 48 years after the approval of the Constitution which defined the electoral system for the Assembly of the Republic, “very few changes occurred”, despite much having changed in the country in these decades.
According to the signatories, “Portugal is going against the current” as it is part of “a very small group of three European Union countries in which it is only possible to vote for party lists (closed lists) in elections legislative”, making it possible all over the world to have “some form of personalization of the vote”.
“Electoral systems have recognized impacts both on parliamentary fragmentation — which in turn affects political stability — and on the degree of proportionality of votes and mandates and the greater or lesser relationship between candidates and voters”, says the document.
Therefore, this manifesto states that the reform of the electoral system, “ensuring greater personalization of mandates and reducing wasted votes, is not a panacea for solving the problems it faces the Portuguese political system, but it can be an important contribution in this sense”.
“It is urgent to remove the barriers and continue the unfinished project of improving Portuguese democracy, starting with the much-needed improvement of our electoral system”, he asks, considering that there are conditions to begin this work in Portugal.
The 25 personalities who signed this manifesto “consider it necessary to reform the electoral system for the Assembly of the Republic, in order to give voters greater freedom of choice and bring voters closer to those elected, reducing wasted votes, maintaining the proportionality of the system “.
This reform must be based on strengthening citizens’ literacy on electoral systems and “in deepening the (long) national academic reflection, with a view to the adequate design of a new electoral system for the Assembly of the Republic adapted to the reality Portuguese of the 21st century”.
Among the names signing this manifesto are the former director general of the International Organization for Migration, António Vitorino, the former MEP and former presidential candidate Ana Gomes, the former deputies Paulo Trigo Pereira, Alexandre Quintanilha and Jorge Lacão or even the socialist Ãlvaro Beleza.
Former PSD leader LuÃs Marques Mendes, former CDS-PP president José Ribeiro e Castro and former minister Miguel Cadilhe also signed the document.
