Indigenous Candidates Increase 14.13% in October Elections

This year, indigenous people were able to declare the ethnicity to which they belong

On October 6, more than 461,700 indigenous candidates will compete for the positions of mayor, deputy mayor and councilor in 5,569 municipalities, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

Based on data extracted from the Electoral Tribunal, this year the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) published the study Power Profile – Elections 2024, in collaboration with the Common Data collective, with the analysis of the registered candidacies.

The survey found that when considering candidates for all three positions by color and race, this year 207,467 (45.64%) candidates identified as white; 187,903 (41.34%) identified as people of color; 51,782 (11.39%) identified as black; 2,479 (0.55%) are indigenous; 1,756 (0.39%) are yellow; and 3,141 (0.69%) did not disclose their color/race.

Based on these numbers, Inesc found that candidates who declared themselves indigenous were the only ones who registered a higher turnout in this year’s elections. Indigenous people went from 2,172 registrations in 2020 to 2,479 registrations in 2024, which represents an increase of 14.13%. The growth was noted in all regions of Brazil.

Before the TSE resolution, the declaration of color or race in the registration of candidates was optional.

For the first time this year, candidates were also able to voluntarily declare their ethnicity. According to the TSE, of the 2,479 indigenous candidates registered, 1,966 revealed their ethnicity, for a total of 176 ethnic groups. The three largest are 168 candidates from the Kaingang people; 150 Tikúna; and 107 candidates from the Makuxí ethnic group.

“The possibility of ethnic-racial declaration [indígena] and ethnic-territorial belonging [etnia] can help contain fraud, as it indicates that the candidate is linked to an indigenous territory, to a community”, concludes the study Power Profile – Elections 2024, by Inesc.

Indigenous applications

The largest proportional number of indigenous candidates is found in the state of Roraima, where 7.10% of the total number of candidates declared themselves indigenous. In 2020, Roraima was already the state with the highest concentration of indigenous people (7.95%).

Inesc believes that the overall increase reflects greater political engagement by these communities across the country.

Although indigenous candidacies are increasing, representation in executive positions is still limited, according to Inesc.

Political Advisor of Inesc Carmela Zigoni believes that the balance of power in these elective spaces of power, both in the executive and in the legislative chambers, are harmful to elected indigenous people.

This is because the participation of indigenous peoples in spaces of power is still low and indigenous peoples face challenges in trying to propose public policies and laws to protect their populations and territories, in times of advancement of predatory agricultural systems and mining.

“Those [indígenas] Those who are elected face racism and gender-based political violence in institutional spaces. But it is essential that they commit to this mission, to try to stop the obstacles and try to guarantee their rights”currency.

Regarding the gender of indigenous candidates, 1,568 (63.25%) are men and 911 (36.75%) are women.

Parts

In terms of political alignment, 41.87% of indigenous candidates are affiliated with right-wing parties. Left-wing parties have 40.42% of the candidates from this audience and the rest (17.71%) are centrists.

Inesc believes that this distribution reflects the diversity of political perspectives within indigenous communities. The political advisor explains that, among the reasons for this phenomenon, there is the lack of programmatic orientations by political parties, which prevents the dissemination of a clear agenda in municipalities about what the party defends. “Local political dynamics and controversies emerge, instead of the political polarization observed in national elections,” he explains.

She also notes that the most left-wing parties defend environmental rights, but in practice the agenda is development, which can represent negative policies for indigenous rights. “We have seen a strong attachment to policies aimed at accelerating environmental licenses, large tax incentives for mining companies and investments in infrastructure for export of agroindustry. Therefore, this creates a contradiction for the candidacies and votes of these populations,” she said.

Positions

If we consider all the municipalities, the number of indigenous people seeking executive power in the municipalities reaches 46, six women and 40 men.

There are 63 candidates for the position of deputy mayor, 26 women and 37 men.

Considering only the 26 capitals that will hold elections next month, the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies found that there is only one indigenous candidate running for mayor. It is Lucínio Castelo de Assumção, of Guarani ethnicity, candidate for mayor of Vitória for the Liberal Party (PL).

And to occupy the position of deputy mayor of a capital, only one indigenous woman is running: Amanda Brandão Paes Armelau, candidate in Rio de Janeiro, also affiliated with the PL, and of unknown ethnicity.

Brazil

The 2022 census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) revealed that almost 1.7 million indigenous people live in Brazil, corresponding to 0.83% of the country’s total population, which corresponds to 266 indigenous peoples.

The majority of indigenous people (867.9 thousand or 51.2%) live in the Legal Amazon, a region formed by the states of the North, Mato Grosso and part of Maranhão.

The 2022 census also revealed that many of the indigenous people are young, with more than half of them being under the age of 30 (56.10%).

Municipal elections

This year, there are 69,602 positions up for grabs in the municipalities, divided into 5,569 for mayors and deputy mayors and 58,464 for councilors.

According to the TSE, out of 461,703 applications for candidate registration for the October elections, there are 15,478 candidates for mayor; 15,703 candidates for deputy mayor and 430,522 candidates for councilor.

The Electoral Tribunal reports that this year’s municipal elections are the largest ever because there are more than 155.91 million voters, including 140.03 million voters who do not have information about color and race on their voter rolls. Among the electorate that has this data, 8.5 million (5.45%) are people of color; 5.29 million (3.39%) are white; 1.8 million (1.16%) are black; 155.6 thousand (0.10%) are indigenous; 114.38 (0.07%) are yellow.

The first round of the municipal elections is scheduled for October 6. The second round will take place on October 27, in cities with more than 200,000 voters, if no candidate for office receives more than half of the valid votes, excluding blank and invalid ballots, to be elected.

Source: Agency Brazil

Source: Terra

Rose

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