Rousseff calls for constitutional vote to quell Brazil protests Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has proposed holding a referendum on political reform to tackle mass protests against poor public services and corruption that have swept through the country. In a bid to ally herself with the concerns of protesters Ms Rouseff proposed "five pacts" covering a national vote on amending Brazil's constitution, fiscal responsibility and extra spending on health, education and transport. The people in the streets are demanding changes. The people are telling us they want more citizenship, they want quality public services, efficient mechanisms to fight corruption," Ms Rousseff said. Analysts immediately questioned Ms Rouseff's ability to deliver on her promise, which could affect the chance of her re-election in 2014. In April, her government delivered the biggest deficit in four years. Brazilian governments have been promising political reform for most of the past 20 years but only minor and faulting progress has been made. Most analysts agree that Brazil has too many political parties, which find it too easy to get members elected to Congress. Once elected, members are free to change parties at will and often owe greater allegiance to backers in business than to their voters. As a result, government is often stymied by a need to balance regional and special interests, and voter accountability is all but non-existent. "The creation of a Constituent Assembly to deliver a deep cutting political reform could add another element of medium-term uncertainty," wrote Alberto Ramos, chief Latin American economist at Goldman Sachs, in a note to clients. "These transformational events tend to take a long time and the final outcome is extremely hard to predict," he added. The high cost of building the infrastructure for the World Cup, which Brazil hosts in 2014, and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has become a focal point for protesters who say the big funding for stadiums would be better spent on transport, education and hospitals. Ms Rousseff proposed holding a referendum to establish a Constituent Assembly that would eventually amend Brazil's constitution, and said her government would allocate R50bn ($25bn, £16bn) for new investments in urban mobility projects and to improve public transport. They want more citizenship, they want quality public services, efficient mechanisms to fight corruption Dilma Rousseff Stressing the need for fiscal responsibility from governors and mayors, Ms Rouseff suggested tougher penalties for corruption, and warned against any repeat of the violence that was seen last Thursday. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to contain the largest protest in decades as more than a million people took to the streets unhappy at planned rises in public-transport fares. Despite shelving those increases, the protests rapidly became more widespread and the protesters" demands more wide-ranging. Fresh demonstrations took place in several cities on Monday evening, although they appeared to be smaller than those that led to clashes with police last week.