Municipal elections in Brazil: over 450,000 candidacies registered

Nationwide, the Brazilian Electoral Court has recorded 451,988 candidate registrations for councilors, mayors, and deputy mayors ahead of October's municipal elections. The deadline for in-person registration closed on Thursday (Aug. 15).

To date, regional electoral courts have received 15,341 applications for mayor, 15,415 for deputy mayor, and 421,232 for councilor positions.

Each registration will be reviewed by the electoral zone judge in the candidate’s intended city. One reason for ineligibility is having irregular accounts judged by the Federal Court of Auditors. Today, the Superior Electoral Court received a list of 9,700 individuals in this situation.

If the judge identifies missing documents, they may request that the candidate address the issue within three days. The judge will then decide whether to approve or reject the candidacy. If the registration is denied, the candidate has the right to appeal to their state’s Regional Electoral Court and to the Superior Electoral Court.

The first round of elections is scheduled for October 6. A second round may be held on October 27 in municipalities with over 200,000 voters if no mayoral candidate receives more than half of the valid votes—excluding blank and null ballots—in the first round.