Brazil elections 2022: Republicans and PSD are the parties that continue to grow under Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The parties that gained the most members from October 2018 to April 2022 were the Republicans (99,412) and the PSD (80,145). The Republicans conducted membership campaigns with state and municipal leaders.

The data comes from a Power360 survey with information from the Superior Electoral Court TSE.

Also noteworthy is Polo, which reached a plus of 48% with 223 thousand members.

The growth of the Republicans, which is linked to the Universal Church, is a sign of the greater involvement of evangelicals in politics in recent years.

The group was able to push through its conservative goals, winning a Supreme Court Justice and demonstrating strength in pressing its demands, such as the IPTU exemption for churches in February.

“We have conducted several membership campaigns with state and municipal leaders,” says Congressman Marcos Pereira, referring to the Filia 10 campaign.

On the other hand, Polo managed to transform dissatisfaction with the Bolsonaro government into members more than the Worker’s Party PT.

It has gained almost twice as many new members and is already being asked by PT members to circulate content about former President Lula da Silva on youth social networks.

MEMBERS LOST

The MDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement – center to center-right) was the party that lost the most members. It counts 261 thousand affiliations less. The number of members of DEM (Democrats) and PSL (now merged into União Brasil) is 252 thousand lower than in October 2018. In other words, 1 in 5 members of the merged parties dropped out during this government.

The PL (Liberal Party – center-right to right-wing) has lost 26,487 members since the beginning of the mandate. President Bolsonaro’s entry into the party on November 30, 2021, was not enough to regain the nearly 800,000 members the party had at the beginning of the government.

The total number of registered party members has dropped by 650,000 since 2018.

LARGEST PARTIES

Despite the loss of memberships, MDB still leads in registrations: 2.1 million. It is followed by PT (1.6 million), PSDB (1.4 million), PP (1.3 million), and PDT (1.1 million).

However, the numbers are inflated. For example, it is not credible that the MDB has 2.1 million members, twice the total of all parties in Germany.

This is because the MDB does not regularly re-register its members, and that deceased persons are not regularly removed from the registers. Reports indicate that individuals who died more than 15 years ago continue to be listed as “regular” members in the register.

According to the Law on Political Parties, the election judge is responsible for excluding deceased voters from the membership list. In response to a question from the report, the TSE said that “in the event of death and loss of political rights, membership is automatically canceled.”

However, it did not answer whether there has been a change in orientation in recent years that would allow this automatic system to function effectively.

The parties that have lost the most members are also among the parties with the most elderly citizens. Half of the MDB’s members are over 60 years old. The PP has 48% and the PTB 46%. However, it is difficult to understand how many of those who have died are still on the register.

With information from Poder360