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Brazil elects on the national level a Head Of State – the President – and a Legislature . The president is elected for a four-year term by the people. The National Congress (''Congresso Nacional'') has two Chambers . The Chamber Of Deputies (''Câmara dos Deputados'') has 513 members, elected for a four-year term by Proportional Representation . The Federal Senate (''Senado Federal'') has 81 members, elected for an eight-year term, with elections every four years for alternatively one-third and two-third of the seats. Brazil has a Multi-party system, with numerous Parties in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and so must work with each other to form Coalition Government s. THE BRAZILIAN VOTING MACHINES Brazil was the first country in the world to have fully Electronic Elections . The Brazilian voting machines were firstly developed in 1996 by a Brazilian partnership formed by three companies OMNITECH (previously known as TDA), Microbase and Unisys Do Brasil attending the TSE RFP for the Brazilian Elections in 1996. This machine was an IBM PC 80386 compatible adapted to perform as a voting machine, and was known as UE96. In 1998, Procomp , Microbase and Samurai (formely known as OMNITECH) teamed up to produce UE98. Again in 2000, Microbase and Procomp developed UE2000 together. In 2000 Brazil achieved the first completely automated election. Every voter in Brazil used the electronic system to vote. The original operating system was VirtuOS developed and copyrighted by Microbase. It was used in 1996, 1998 and 2000. In 2002, Unisys was incapable to set a patnership with Microbase, and Microsoft provided the Windows CE operating system free of charge. In 2004, Procomp decided to migrate to Linux as a cost reduction measure. The chief goal of the Brazilian voting machine is its extreme simplicity, attempting to be as straightforward as a public Phone Booth . Electronic voting was introduced to Brazil in 1996 (when the first tests were carried in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil . Since 2000 , all Brazilian elections have been fully electronic. There still remain some questions about the security of the electronic voting system, but no case of fraud has yet been uncovered. The voting system has been widely accepted, due in great part to the fact that it speeds up the vote count tremendously. In the 1989 presidential election between Fernando Collor De Mello and Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva , the vote count required nine days. In 2002 , the count required less than 12 hours. In some smaller towns the election results are known minutes after the closing of the ballots. Supporters of the electronic vote claim that unless the fraud were intentionally designed into the machines, it would be impossible to carry an extensive fraud in such a small amount of time. However, security has always been an issue, and the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court ( TSE ) regularly funds research aimed at improving it. The source code to the voting software is proprietary and the public is not able to examine it. In order to be able to recount the votes, a printing system has been developed and a new elector's registration system is planned. Brazil lends the machines to other countries for elections as well. They have been used in Paraguay and Ecuador and there are plans to export the Patent ed machines. HISTORY Last elections Brazil has had direct presidential elections continuously since 1989 , when Fernando Collor De Mello was elected to the Presidency of the Republic (''Presidência da República'' in Portuguese). After an Impeachment in 1992 , Vice-president Itamar Franco succeeded him as president. The next elections occurred in 1994 for the 1995 - 1998 term, 1998 for the 1999 - 2002 term, and in 2002 for the 2003 - 2006 term. Fernando Henrique Cardoso (elected for the 1995-1998 term) passed a controversial Constitutional Amendment which allows the president to serve two consecutive times and was reelected for the 1999-2002 term. In 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva became the president-elect, taking office in 2003. Referenda Brazil has held three national referenda in its History. In the first, held on January 6, 1963, the people voted for the restablishment of the Presidential system of government (82% of valid ballots), which had been modified by a constitutional amendment in 1961. A second referendum, as ordered by the Federal Constitution of 1988, was held on April 21, 1993, when the voters voted for a Republican form of government and reaffirmed the Presidential system. A third national referendum, on the Prohibition Of The Commerce Of Personal Firearms And Ammunition , was held on October 23, 2005. The ban proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by the electorate (NO: 64%; YES: 36%). SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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