A FEW WORDS ON THE ABRAMPPE 

      The Brazilian Association of Electoral Judges and Prosecutors (ABRAMPEE) was created in September 2005 aiming to consolidate the connections among members of the Electoral Justice throughout the country, with the sole goal of contributing with the development of our democratic institutions.

     The electoral lawsuits - many of them against culprits of violating civil and political freedoms – still have many years ahead before reaching any final conclusions. It is not rare for a politician to serve for the term he was elected for without having a final sentence on power abuse and vote buying charges against him.

      It took a popular initiative law draft to change the content of a few articles on the Elections Act – a draft that was signed by over a million citizens and became a law in 2000 – and grant electoral judges the administrative power to disable a candidate who had been caught committing acts of corruption during political rallies.

      Therefore, since 2000, this legislative innovation allowed for almost 500 political mandates to be disabled, from local representatives to state governors.

     This was also possible thanks to the new interpretative activity of the Superior Electoral Court. When it refused to grant the new statute the same application guidelines that were adopted by the previous law, that Court gave a quality boost to electoral lawsuits.

      This proves that certain changes, though small, can be very effective. It also proves that changes in legislation must be followed by changes in institutional ways that will – without damaging its inherent equidistance – make Electoral Justice an efficient tool when it comes to promoting democracy.

     ABRAMPPE has the intention of submitting these observations to rigorous doctrinaire debate in order to find in other areas of science the necessary data and information to fundament a deep and critical reading of the reality concerning Electoral Law.

      We hereby invite all organizations which may be interested in this subject to keep in touch and establish with us united lines of work, studies and scientific researches.

      Email us at abmpe@abmpe.org.br we shall promptly reply.

      Best regards, 

Márlon Jacinto Reis

President of ABRAMPPE