POLITICS: Brazil May Gain its First Female Vice-President

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 18 2002 (IPS) - Although women’s activists in Brazil do not expect October’s general elections to lead to a significant increase in the proportion of women in parliament, the country may gain its first female vice-president.

The ruling Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) is making a bid to draw the votes of women by making parliamentary Deputy Rita Camata the running-mate of former health minister José Serra.

But that decision “is the wrong response to society’s demands” for greater participation by women in politics and elected office, said Guacira Cesar de Oliveira, executive secretary of Articulation of Brazilian Women (AMB), an umbrella of women’s organisations.

The nomination of Camata as vice-presidential candidate “is a response that reflects prejudice and discredits women,” by using them as mere publicity tools, Oliveira told IPS.

The activist maintained that Camata was chosen merely because she is a woman, and an attractive one, and not out of a real desire on the part of political parties to put an end to discrimination and expand women’s representation in elected posts.

It became increasingly clear that including a woman on the presidential slate for the October elections would be a good move ever since polls began to show, late last year, the growing popularity of Roseana Sarney, then-governor of the impoverished northeastern state of Maranhao.

But the popularity of the daughter of ex-president José Sarney (1985-1990) collapsed along with her candidacy when a scandal broke out in early March in a company that she and her husband own.

Sarney and her husband Jorge Murad failed to explain the origin of 1.4 million reais (560,000 dollars) in cash that the police found in their company.

The pile of 50-real notes, shown on television, destroyed the presidential hopes of the former governor of the conservative Liberal Front Party (PFL).

The Serra-Rita ticket formalises an alliance between two of the three large parties in the coalition that has backed the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso since he first took office in 1995.

Serra, the PSDB’s presidential candidate, served as minister of planning and then of health until he resigned in March to dedicate himself fully to the election campaign. He is currently second in the polls, with around 20 percent ratings.

Deputy Camata belongs to the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), which links several centrist political factions and has been divided throughout most of Cardoso’s time in office, with some sectors in the opposition.

Both parties held their conventions last Saturday to ratify the presidential nominations, which had already been negotiated by the party leaderships.

The leftist Workers’ Party (PT), whose leader Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is front-runner in the polls with 38 percent ratings, is also studying the possibility of fielding a female vice- presidential candidate.

The decision, which must be reached at the PT convention scheduled for Jun 30, has been postponed as the party has attempted to strike up an alliance with the Liberal Party, in order to present textile industrialist José Alencar as Lula’s running-mate.

That alliance would help calm the fears of the international business community and financial markets, which are worried about a possible government of the left led by Lula, a former steelworker and trade unionist who professed socialist ideals in the past but has toned down his rhetoric and become more moderate.

Meanwhile, Camata, the 41-year-old representative of the small state of Espíritu Santo, brings much more than her gender to the ruling party’s election campaign. In parliament, the lawmaker has stood out by submitting draft laws that defend the rights of children and women, and she has often voted against Cardoso’s policies.

Her candidacy thus strengthens Serra’s pledge that he would consolidate the achievements of the Cardoso administration, in terms of economic stability for example, but with some changes, especially on the social front.

Women hope to see their political representation grow at least slightly in the October legislative elections.

The quota law, in effect since 1996, that requires all parties to reserve 30 percent of the slots on parliamentary tickets for women candidates, failed to bring about an increase in the proportion of women in Congress, which stands at just six percent.

Women candidates are not given the necessary support from the parties, and have only been granted two percent of all campaign funds, said Oliveira. “Another law will be needed” to achieve gender equality in politics, she added.

Despite the disadvantages faced by female candidates, the women’s movement in Brazil decided two weeks ago at a meeting held in Brasilia to continue their struggle for more participative democracy at all levels of politics and more effective social policies against poverty.