Lacking Sufficient Signatures, Bolsonaro’s New Party Cannot Dispute October Elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The first round of voting in municipal elections is scheduled for October 4th. The legal deadline for parties disputing these elections to be officially registered with the Electoral Court, expired last Saturday, April 4th. As a result, the newly formed Alliance for Brazil will not be able to run its own candidates.

The possibility of deferring the voting date due to the novel coronavirus pandemic is now under discussion; if the election were postponed, that would allow more time for the registration of the new party.

According to the party’s secretary general, Admar Gonzaga, the party’s leadership never announced that it would run in this year’s elections.

“The press was always saying we were racing against time, but it wasn’t us. We were never in that race. We never mislead anyone throughout our procedure so far by saying we were preparing to run in the municipal election,” Admar said.

According to him, an attorney and ex-judge of the TSE (Supreme Electoral Court), the Alliance succeeded in garnering enough support, but there was no time for the notaries to validate the signatures. Admar claims that over one million signatures have been collected, while the minimum required is 492,000 signatures, spread among at least nine states.

One month before the deadline, the number of signatures validated by the Electoral Court was still short, approximately 1.6 percent of the total required.

“In 2022, with certainty, the Alliance will dispute the elections. In fact, the party could be ready this year, by the end of the year if it were a normal year. But this is an atypical year. The deadlines are interrupted, the notaries are not checking the records,” the party secretary said.

Without the new party being able to run in the race, he said it is possible there will be support for politicians from other parties.

“The first question is whether there will be an election. If there is, here and there, of course, the federal legislators or the President himself can direct his support to some candidate who is highly deserving of such trust. The trust that was placed in past elections showed that it didn’t work out so well. We have to redouble our care in directing this support,” he said.

The Republicans party leadership has made its structure available to politicians linked to the president who want to run this year after leaving the PSL party. The Bolsonaro family all ran in 2018 for the PSL banner, but have stepped away from the national direction of the party, led by Luciano Bivar, amid a scandal over strawmen candidates.

In late March, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, City Councilor Carlos Bolsonaro and Rogéria Nantes, sons and ex-wife of President Jair Bolsonaro, joined the Republicans, a party linked to the Universal Church whose main name is the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella.

What it takes to create a party

The Electoral Law requires parties to be registered with the TSE at least six months prior to the election. This deadline therefore expired on April 4th.

To form a new political party, the court requires a list with signatures equivalent to 0.5 percent of the total valid votes in the last election to the Chamber of Deputies, which equals 491,967 supporters; all signers must have no party affiliation, and must be in at least nine states.

If this year’s elections are deferred, this would automatically allow more time for the Alliance for Brazil to stand. This is because if the voting date is postponed, the deadline for the formation of parties would also be pushed forward.

Currently there is no consensus in Congress or the Judiciary regarding the postponement of municipal elections.

STF Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, head of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), has set a deadline until June for the Electoral Court to decide on this option.