The electoral system of Brazil is the set of means used to choose representatives and government members of the

Federative Republic of Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The current system is defined by the 1988 Constitution and the (Law No. 4,737 of 1965), in addition to being regulated by the

Superior Electoral Court The Superior Electoral Court (, TSE) is the highest body of the Brazilian Election Justice, Brazilian Electoral Justice, which also comprises one Regional Electoral Court (Brazil), Regional Electoral Court (, TRE) in each of the 26 states and th ...

(, TSE) as delegated by law. The Constitution itself already defines three distinct electoral systems, which are detailed in the Electoral Code: proportional elections for the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, mirrored in the legislative powers at the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

(Legislative Assemblies) and

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

(City Council) levels, majority elections with one or two elected representatives to the

Federal Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. Senate or the Senate may also refer to: * Any one of the national senates in the world, including ** The Australian Senate ** The Brazilian Senate * ...

and majority elections in two rounds for

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and other executive heads in other spheres.

Plurality system

The majority or plurality system is used in Brazil to elect the chief executive of all spheres (president, governors and

mayors In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

), and also for elections to the Federal Senate. In presidential elections, the system employed is absolute majority, where a person needs to obtain more than 50% of the valid votes, disregarding scratch and spoilt votes, to be elected. In order to ensure that this majority is obtained in a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional ...

, the election is held in two rounds. The first one is disputed by all the candidates, and the second is disputed only by the two best placed candidates in the first round. The second round only takes place if no candidate reaches an absolute majority in the first round of the election. This system is also used in elections for state governors and mayor of municipalities with more than 200,000 voters. In case of a tie, the age of the candidates is taken into account, and the oldest is elected. The Federal Senate is renewed every four years in proportions of one third in one election and two thirds in the following. Each state elects three senators, regardless of their population size. Therefore, each state elects one or two senators every four years, that is, the position of senator lasts eight years. For this reason, the election for the Senate takes place in a majority within each state, to choose the senators who will represent that state. When only one candidate must be chosen, a

relative majority A plurality vote (in North American English) or relative majority (in British English) describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all votes cast. For ...

of votes is used with separate elections for each state. In this system, known as

First-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

in an analogy to horse racing, each voter votes for only one candidate and the one who obtains the highest number of votes wins the election, without the need for a second round if he does not obtain an absolute majority. This system is also used to elect mayors of municipalities with up to 200,000 voters.

Proportional system

In elections for the Chamber of Deputies and for state and municipal legislative bodies, the Constitution provides for the use of a proportional system. In addition, at the federal level, the election must be held separately in each of the states and territories. Candidates for the Chamber of Deputies can only be voted in the state where candidates are launched, and will run only for seats reserved for that state. In addition to these restrictions, the Constitution also imposes a minimum limit of 8 and a maximum of 70 deputies for each state, defined in proportion to the population of each one. The Brazilian Electoral Code determines that the proportional system used is an open list system, where the votes are nominal to the candidates and the party lists are composed of the most voted members of each party. In this type of system, each party obtains a number of seats proportional to the sum of the votes of all its candidates, and these seats are distributed, in order, to the most voted candidates of that party. In 2017, the Federal Constitution was amended with regard to party autonomy, resulting from Constitutional Amendment No. 97, which prohibited the formation of coalitions between parties for proportional elections, ensured only within the scope of majority elections, as provided for in the new wording of Article 17, § 1 of the Federal Constitution.

References

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Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Elections in Brazil

Plurality system

Proportional system

See also

References