Brazilians to choose their president Sunday
Next Sunday (Oct. 7), Brazilians are going to the polls to choose their president, governors for the 27 states, two senators for each state, 513 federal deputies, and 1,035 state deputies. According to official figures, 26,965 citizens are running as candidates, and 147,306,275 are eligible to vote.
Should one of the 13 presidential hopefuls amass more than 50 percent of valid ballots (null and blank excluded), he or she is elected without the need for a second round. Otherwise, a run-off is held—slated for October 28—and the two most voted-for contenders vie for the presidency. The same applies to the post as state governor. As for the chairs as senator, no run-off is carried out, the two with the highest number of votes win.
Lower house
Federal and state deputies are elected under a special, proportional system. Electors may vote for an individual candidate or for a whole political party. A formula then determines who will take the post. Among the components of this formula is the population of the state in question—which defines the number of seats for that state. The number of ballots—the sum of votes received by individual candidates plus those directed at the party—is then divided by the number of seats.
A change in the legislation, approved by Congress in 2015, fixed what had been regarded as a distortion in the system. According to the Senate’s news agency, these elections will be the first with a clause in effect on candidates’ performance, which stipulates that a candidate must have a minimum number of votes cast for him/her, so candidates must receive at least ten percent of the electoral quotient (valid votes divided by the number of seats for every state) to be elected. In case this requirement is not met, hopefuls with a considerably low number of votes could formerly be benefited by the votes cast for other candidates—often celebrities running for a public post.
