[SENATE] Federal Citizen Sufferage Act
Posted: 16:39:44 Friday, 03 November, 2017
My Colleagues:
It appears that the PCB has beaten us to the punch with a proposal to move forwards on seeking equal democratic process for the citizens of Acre. We applaud their efforts and have only ourselves to blame for our tardiness in our proposal. We do not intend to detract from their effort or their proposed remedies. Both their proposal and our proposal should stand on their own merits; both will treat our citizenry in different ways.
However, while the Communists proposed exploring a path to statehood from a bottom-up approach for the singular territory of Acre, we ourselves took a different tack. We saw this territory, home to twenty thousand Brasilian citizens, and realized that, while they are citizens and live within the sovereign federal state of Brasil, at this time they are barred from our federal elections. While we can understand regional representation and a path to statehood being a lengthy process for a territory, especially one so small, we find it absurd that they should be barred from the federal elections for that same reason. For that, my friends, is not an issue with the Territory of Acre: it is a structural issue with our Democracy.
As such we propose a bill urging the President to begin exploring an amendment to the Constitution that will rectify this issue for all Brasilian citizens, both at the current time and in any future years to come.
It appears that the PCB has beaten us to the punch with a proposal to move forwards on seeking equal democratic process for the citizens of Acre. We applaud their efforts and have only ourselves to blame for our tardiness in our proposal. We do not intend to detract from their effort or their proposed remedies. Both their proposal and our proposal should stand on their own merits; both will treat our citizenry in different ways.
However, while the Communists proposed exploring a path to statehood from a bottom-up approach for the singular territory of Acre, we ourselves took a different tack. We saw this territory, home to twenty thousand Brasilian citizens, and realized that, while they are citizens and live within the sovereign federal state of Brasil, at this time they are barred from our federal elections. While we can understand regional representation and a path to statehood being a lengthy process for a territory, especially one so small, we find it absurd that they should be barred from the federal elections for that same reason. For that, my friends, is not an issue with the Territory of Acre: it is a structural issue with our Democracy.
As such we propose a bill urging the President to begin exploring an amendment to the Constitution that will rectify this issue for all Brasilian citizens, both at the current time and in any future years to come.
Whereas it should be taken that a Citizen of the sovereign state of Brasil, living in its borders in its sovereign territory, is represented at a Federal level by the President in the Executive and Vice President in the Legislature regardless of the current State or Territory they may live in,
Whereas the citizens of our Territories, including that of Acre, while being duly represented by the Federal Executive and Vice President in the Legislature, are currently excluded from our Federal elections,
We propose the following legislation:
Section One. The Brazilian National Congress will urge the Office of the President to explore the avenues by which the right of Brasilian citizens living within the sovereign borders of Brasil to vote in Federal elections will be enshrined in law.
Section Two. The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs will begin an exploration of the various methods by which they can satisfy the requirements of a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the rights of Brazilians within our territory to vote in Federal elections.