Chamber formalizes loss of mandate for two federal deputies With a decision made official this Thursday (9), deputies Paulão (PT-AL) and Dayany Bittencourt (União-CE) lost their mandates as determined by the Electoral Court. ? The change occurred because of the so-called retotalization of votes, a new calculation made by the Electoral Court to define the distribution of vacancies when there is a change in the number of votes considered valid. Why did the deputies lose their mandates? Deputies Paulão (PT-AL) and Dayany Bittencourt (União-CE) Thiago Cristino/Chamber of Deputies In the case of Paulão, the annulment of the votes of candidate João Catunda (PP), who ran for a federal deputy seat for Alagoas in the 2022 elections, determined the change. ?? In November last year, the Alagoas Electoral Court decided to revoke the 24.7 thousand votes given to the PP's second deputy deputy. The understanding is that he had committed illicit vote capture by financing campaign material with money from the Maceió Health Union. With the exclusion of these votes, the Regional Electoral Court of Alagoas re-calculated the electoral quotient and the distribution of seats, which resulted in the loss of the seat occupied by the PT parliamentarian. Dayany Bittencourt's loss of mandate comes after a decision by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that determined the annulment of the votes of substitute Heitor Freire (União Brasil-CE). According to the Court, Heitor was impeached for illegally collecting and spending resources from the Special Campaign Financing Fund (FEFC), also known as the Electoral Fund. The retotalization of votes in Ceará changed the distribution of vacancies for federal deputies and changed the composition of the Ceará bench in the Chamber. READ ALSO: Dayany Bittencourt loses her seat as federal deputy after TSE annulled Heitor Freire's votes How does vote retotalization work? Election from A to Z: Nilson Klava explains how the electoral quotient works In elections for federal, state and district deputies, the system does not work just by adding up the individual votes of each candidate. Seats are distributed using the proportional system, which takes into account the performance of parties and federations (understand more in the video above). ?? To do this, the Electoral Court calculates the electoral quotient, which is obtained by dividing the total number of valid votes by the number of available places. Then, the seats are distributed according to the performance of each party and the candidates with the most votes within them. When the Electoral Court determines that certain votes be annulled — for example, because a candidate's candidacy registration was rejected or because there was some irregularity recognized in a court decision — the result of the election may change. That's what happened in these cases. Following decisions by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), votes that had previously been counted were no longer considered valid. With the withdrawal of these votes, the Electoral Court redid the election calculations, changing the electoral quotient and the distribution of seats between the parties. The retotalization of votes, therefore, is not a new election nor a physical recount of the ballot boxes. It is a new mathematical calculation made by the Electoral Court based on the votes that remain valid, to once again define which parties and candidates are entitled to the seats won at the polls. In situations like this, the change does not mean that the deputies lost their mandate due to a conviction or a political decision by the Chamber. The loss occurs because, after reviewing the electoral result, the Court concluded that the composition of the bench should be different from that initially determined. Who will take over the vacancies? Nivaldo Albuquerque (Republicanos-AL), who takes over from Paulão, already appears as an acting deputy on the Chamber's website. In place of Dayany, Priscila Costa (PL-CE) takes over. In a note, the PT bench stated that deputy Paulão is "the victim of a judicial decision made in favor of the political and economic elites of his State within the scope of the Regional Electoral Court of Alagoas", and that he will appeal to the STF (see the full text below). Election from A to Z: Nilson Klava explains how the electoral quotient works What the PT says See the full PT note on the case of deputy Paulão: "The PT Bench in the Chamber of Deputies expresses its disagreement with the decision of the Board of Directors of the House, which accepted the opinion of the Parliamentary Corregedor, deputy Diego Coronel, due to the loss of the mandate of federal deputy Paulão (PT-AL). It also expresses its full solidarity with this warrior of the people A native of Alagoas and Brazilian, our colleague Paulão, victim of a judicial decision made in favor of the political and economic elites of his State within the scope of the Regional Electoral Court of Alagoas. A writ of mandamus in the Federal Supreme Court will be filed against the decision of the Board of the Chamber, in the expectation that the vote in favor of the request for the maintenance of deputy Paulão's mandate, given by Minister Dias Toffoli in the plenary session of the Superior Electoral Court, will be confirmed by the majority of the Board upon return from the recess of the session. Judiciary, in August. We are confident that this mandate, essential to Brazilian social movements and the people of Alagoas, will be restored promptly."