The 18 parliamentarians that participate in the Brazilian Representation on Mercosul Parliament - nine deputies and nine senators -  will receive until the end of April the initial version of the bill that will regulate the elections of Brazilian representatives to the new regional parliament. The announcement was made on Thursday (17) by the Brazilian vice-president of Mercosul Parliament, deputy Dr. Rosinha (PT-PR), during a meeting of the national representation, that took place at Senate.

The proposal, written by four legislative consultants of the Chamber of Deputies and four of the Senate, will include themes as the dimension of the electoral circumscription - state, regional or national - and the voting model to be adopted - nominal, as currently applied in the election of  deputies, or by means of electoral party lists. Technical suggestions will be debated on May by the members of the representation, that soon afterwards will formalize a bill, which will be sent to the Congress’s Boards.

- We intended to finish that project until the end of June. The studies are quite developed, but the theme is complex - said Dr. Rosinha.

Mercosul Parliament is currently composed by deputies and senators nominated by each National Congress of the countries of the bloc - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Each delegation has 18 parliamentarians. Venezuelan deputies, country whose adhesion needs to be ratified by the Brazilian and Paraguayan parliaments, have currently the right of speech, but are not entitled to vote, at the moment.

In the transition period, nominated parliamentarians will be substituted by others, who will be chosen in the first general elections run by each of the country-members. This is the case of Paraguay, that will choose its representatives on April 20. Brazilian voters will choose their representatives for Mercosul Parliament in the elections of 2010 - concomitant with the election of the next president, governors, federal deputies and two thirds of senators. This proposal defines the rules for those representatives' elections.

On May, Mercosul Parliament will begin to debate the size of each country’s representation in the future. Dr. Rosinha’s bill suggests the following model: 75 parlamentarians from Brazil, 32 from Argentina, 31 from Venezuela, 18 from Paraguay and 18 from Uruguay. The parliament will decide on the subject until the end of 2008.