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Weekly Report - 11 October 2007 (INNS 1741-7422)

BRAZIL: Supreme court's two-edged ruling

Late last week Brazil's supreme court ruled that mandates belong to parties and not politicians. The decision is expected to give more stability to Brazil's notoriously fragmented and weak party system, which allows politicians to change parties whenever they please despite having been elected defending a particular party platform and having used its funds to campaign. The ruling, however, may have a negative effect when a politician is genuinely against the policies pursued by his party and wants to change to one that has more similarities with the platform on which they were elected by voters. In this sense the ruling may allow party leaders to get rid of politicians who are not toeing the line, as a recent case in the senate's constitutional and justice committee revealed.

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