Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) published the names of all the people who have submitted a request for running in the October 2014 general elections. They amount to nearly 25,000.
They are competing for a position as federal, state or district deputy, senator, governor and President of the Republic. The number of posts to be filled is 1,650.
The most sought-after position is that of state deputy (16,200 candidates, and 1,059 openings). The equivalent for federal deputies is 6,100 and 513 spaces.
In the Senate, where only a third of the positions are open, the ratio is 181/27. To become the head of a state or the Federal District, the amount of candidates is 171 candidates, competing for 27 posts. The number of presidential candidates is eleven.
Also in October, at least a thousand candidates will be competing for 24 openings as district deputy, which only exist in the Federal District.
If a request for candidacy is granted, the politician who submitted it does not necessarily have the right to partake in the elections. After the approval is issued by the Electoral Prosecution Office, the request is further analyzed by an electoral judge, who ascertains whether all formalities have been properly dealt with.
Thus far, 1,850 requests for candidacy have been declined nationwide. Around 20 percent of them (367) were not in compliance with the Clean Record Law, which bans the candidacy of whoever has been sentenced by a court.
The first round of the general elections of 2014 will take place on October 5. The runoff is scheduled for October 26, only in cases in which the governor or the president wins with less than 51 percent of the votes, spoiled and blank votes not included.
More Voters
The number of Brazilian voter grew up 5.17 percent in the last four years, going from 135,804,433 voters, in 2010, to 142,822,046, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
The Southeast region of the country concentrates the largest number of people eligible to vote, 62,042,794 (43.44%) followed by the Northeast, 38,269,533 (26.80%), South, 21,117,307 (14.79%), North, 10,801,178 (7.57), and Mid-West, 10,238,058 (7.17).
With 898 registered voters, the city of Araguainha (Mato Grosso) is the smallest electoral college in the country, according to the TSE. On the other end, São Paulo, with 8,782,406 voters, has the largest municipal electoral college.
In the election of 2014, the voters residing abroad total 354,184, 0.25% of the country’s total. When compared to the 2010 elections, there was an expressive growth, of 76.75% of total voters out of Brazil. These voters are in 118 countries with nearly half of them in the United States.
To the president of the TSE, minister Dias Toffoli, the growth of voters outside Brazil grew due to greater awareness and the opening of Brazilian consulates.
“I think there’s been greater disclosure of this possibility to vote abroad and an improvement on the relationship with the Itamaraty, facilitating and expanding the access of Brazilians abroad to our consulates. There was also a large increase in the number of consulates in the countries with which Brazil has diplomatic relations.”
According to the TSE, the majority of the Brazilian electorate is made up of women, with 74,459,424 (52.13%), while men added 68,247,598 (47.79 percent). In 2010, women were 70,252,943 (51.82%) and men 65,282,009 (48.07 percent).
