Sarney to Be Brazil’s President Until 1990 : Extension of His Term as ‘Transitional’ Chief Approved by Congress

Brazil’s Congress adopted a constitutional provision Thursday that will keep President Jose Sarney in office until March, 1990, a year longer than his opponents had hoped.

The vote gives Sarney, a civilian who took office in 1985 at the end of 21 years of military government, a total of five years as “transitional” president.

His administration carried out a vigorous lobbying campaign to gain the five-year term, offering pork-barrel projects, federal jobs and broadcasting licenses in exchange for favorable votes by wavering congressmen, Brazilian newspapers have reported.

“Government redistributes jobs and radios in exchange for five years,” said one headline in Thursday’s edition of Jornal do Brasil, a morning newspaper here.

The Brazilian armed forces also lobbied for a five-year term, and there were published reports of plotting for a coup in the event Congress voted for four years.

Public opinion surveys showed that a majority of Brazilians favored a four-year term, which would have meant holding presidential elections this year.

This nation of 140 million people is suffering from an industrial recession and inflation of nearly 20% a month.

The 559-member Congress, sitting as a constitutional assembly, approved the five-year term Thursday by a vote of 328 to 222. The provision is part of a transitory section of a new constitution that is near completion after more than a year in the drafting process.

Other transitory provisions call for a revision of the new constitution in 1993 and a national plebiscite that year on whether Brazil should continue to be ruled by a presidential system of government or switch to a parliamentary system with a prime minister as government leader.

Although the draft constitution still may be changed in a final round of voting, most major provisions are expected to stand.

Sarney, 59, was not elected by popular vote. Near the end of the military dictatorship, while a national opposition movement pressed for direct presidential elections, the military rulers decided that a civilian president would be chosen by an electoral college made up of Congress and delegates from state legislatures.

Switches Parties

Sarney, a senator who had been president of the party that supported the military government, switched parties to become the opposition’s vice presidential candidate. It was felt that he would help make an opposition victory acceptable to the armed forces.

Tancredo Neves, the opposition candidate for president, won the electoral college vote but died before taking office, and Sarney assumed the presidency in his place March 15, 1985.

The present constitution, written by the military government, provides for a six-year presidential term. Last year Sarney said he did not want six years but would settle for no less than five.

Since then, the length of his term has been the overriding issue in politics in this country.