Page "Politics of the Empire of Brazil" Paragraph 32

The Law of 19 September 1855 created the district vote and incompatibilities ( also known as non-eligibility ).

The first one had as objective to make possible the representation of all the local factions, while the latter had the purpose of reducing the influence of the government ( independent of what party was in power ) in the result of the elections.

Beyond these new features, it was forbidden that public officials campaign in their own districts, as a measure to prevent them from using public resources for their own political benefit.

As a consequence, presidents of provinces, as well as provincial secretaries, military, judges and chiefs of police were prohibited from running in the district where they served, although they could still run in a different district.

The positive results of the reform were already apparent in the immediate following elections, in 1856: prior to that time, such officials constituted the majority of new members of Parliament.

The reduction in their numbers allowed the “ real country "( the Brazilian people ) to enter “ directly into the Parliament "( that is, a true representative democracy ), as was desired by Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão.