FULL VOTE

This year we celebrate 50 years of April 25th. It is, therefore, a good time to ask ourselves whether the model of democratic participation, achieved half a century ago, corresponds to what we expect from a democracy in the middle of the century. XXI.

In 50 years, our electoral system has remained practically unchanged and only allows us to vote for closed party lists. That is, we do not have the possibility of choosing the people we would like to represent us in the Assembly of the Republic. We simply give a “blank check” to the parties. It is they, not us, who choose the people who tell us they are our representatives.

On the other hand, our electoral system generates hundreds of thousands of wasted votes. Votes that do not elect deputies and that leave a significant part of the Portuguese without representation. This unfairly benefits the large parties and harms the smaller ones, contributing to less plural representation, which distorts the popular will.

The conclusion to be drawn is that we have an unfair and obsolete electoral system, which, on the one hand, limits and conditions citizens' votes, not allowing them to directly choose their deputies, and on the other, does not respect the decision expressed by hundreds of thousands of Portuguese.

This is what we want to change with the Citizens' Legislative Initiative that we presented in the Assembly of the Republic, with the aim of reforming the electoral law.

With this proposal we want:

Give Portuguese citizens the same electoral rights that the overwhelming majority of European citizens have today. That is, the right to directly choose their deputies, through nominal voting, voting for people and not exclusively for parties.

And this is achieved by giving voters two votes, as happens in Germany.

One vote is used to choose the deputy from the respective single-member circle. That is, the deputy who represents the populations of a given territory – which can be a set of parishes, a municipality, or a set of municipalities – which corresponds to a certain number of voters.

This will allow citizens to scrutinize the work of the deputy who is elected in this single-member circle, holding him directly responsible for his actions during his term of office and demanding accountability from him.

And a second vote, to vote for the party, which is used to elect other deputies in the district/regional circles and in the national circle.

It is this second vote that guarantees that no vote is wasted and that all votes count towards the counting of mandates. These are called compensation circles that guarantee proportionality.

With our proposal, citizens will have more decision-making power and more freedom of choice.

Instead of "half a vote" they now have a FULL VOTE, voting for parties and people, as happens in 24 of the 27 countries of the European Union.

Currently only 3 countries in the EU27 use the system of closed and blocked lists, which restricts citizens' electoral rights: Portugal, Spain and Romania.

The best way to celebrate 50 years of April 25th is to win the right to FULL VOTING.

If you agree with the cause of FULL VOTE, we ask for your donation to help take our message further and carry out actions that contribute to raising the levels of democratic literacy of citizens.

We also call on you to sign this Citizens' Legislative Initiative so that we can reach the 20,000 signatures necessary for our bill to be discussed and voted on in the Assembly of the Republic.

Together we will build a more modern and advanced Democracy!

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