2020 Brazilian municipal elections
The 2020 Brazilian municipal elections will take place on 15 and 29 November 2020. Electors chose Mayors, Vice-Mayors and City Councillors of all 5,568 cities of the country. The partisan conventions will take place between 20 July and 5 August. These will be the first elections since Bolsonaro's election as President.
Electoral calendar
The Superior Electoral Court defined on 17 December 2019 the Electoral Calendar for 2020 Brazilian municipal election. According to the calendar, the first round should take place on October 4, and the second round, on October 25, from 8 am to 5 pm in both cases. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, these dates were moved forward to 15 November and 29 November, respectively.| Date | Event |
| 1 January | Entities or companies conducting polls related to elections or possible candidates are required to register information in the Electoral Polling Registration System up to 5 days before disclosure |
| 1 January | Free distribution of goods, values or benefits by the public administration is prohibited, except in cases of public calamity, state of emergency or social programs authorized by law and already under budget execution in the previous year |
| 1 April | TSE starts to broadcast institutional advertisements on radio and TV to encourage female, youth and black community participation in politics |
| 4 April | Limit for political parties interested in running for election to have the registrations approved by the TSE |
| 15 May | Pre-candidates will be able to make prior fundraising in crowdfunding |
| 4 July | It is forbidden to hire artistic shows paid for with public funds when conducting inaugurations |
| 31 August | Conventions are allowed to choose coalitions and candidates for Mayor, Vice-Mayor and City Councilor |
| 31 August | Last day for the Electoral Justice to disclose the spending limits for each position in dispute |
| 16 September | Last day for conventions for choosing coalitions and candidates for Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilor |
| 26 September | Last day for parties and coalitions to submit an application for registration of candidates to the Electoral Court |
| 26 September | Date from which electoral propaganda will be allowed, including on the internet |
| 31 October | Date from which no candidate may be arrested or detained, except in flagrante delicto |
| 5 November | Last day for the voter to request a duplicate of the ticket within the electoral domicile |
| 10 November | Date from which no voter can be arrested or detained, except in flagrante delicto or by virtue of a condemnatory criminal sentence for an unspeakable crime |
| 12 November | Last day to broadcast free electoral propaganda on radio and TV for the first round |
| 12 November | Last day for radio and TV debates for the first round |
| 15 November | First Round |
| 27 November | Last day to broadcast free electoral propaganda on radio and TV for the second round |
| 27 November | Last day for radio and TV debates for the second round |
| 29 November | Second Round |
Background
The 2020 municipal elections will be the first since the general elections of 2018, since they will be the rise of bolsonarism, a movement in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, also, so a new political-electoral dynamic is emerging on the political scene and, in a way, will be an assessment of the President's electoral strength.The 2018 general elections, in addition to choosing the President of the Republic, the Governors of State and the Federal District, Senators and Federal, State and District Deputies, granted new Mayors to many cities in the country. This happened due to the fact of art. 14, §6, of the Constitution, establish that:
To run for other positions, the President of the Republic, the State and Federal District Governors and the Mayors must resign their respective mandates up to six months before the election.Thus, many Mayors, wishing to run for other positions, had to resign their mandate until April 5, 2018, starting a new management in such Municipalities. Those who took on such management would be responsible for the remaining period, that is, until December 31, 2020.
- Article 14, §6, of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brasil
The following Mayors resigned from their post to be a candidate for Governor in 2018:
- Carlos Amastha, Mayor of Palmas;
- Carlos Eduardo Alves, Mayor of Natal;
- Marcus Alexandre, Mayor of Rio Branco;
- João Doria, Mayor of São Paulo;
- José Ronaldo, Mayor of Feira de Santana.
In March 2020, a discussion involving the postponement of the election surrounded the Congress, due to the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil. Some mayors and federal deputies propose that the election should be re-scheduled to 2021 or 2022, fusing with the 2022 general election. Both President of the Superior Electoral Court, Justice Rosa Weber, and President of the Chamber of Deputies, deputy Rodrigo Maia, state that it is "a premature debate" and that it could cause "a very large institutional risk", respectively. Federal deputy Aécio Neves filed in a bill to postpone the election to October 2022 and unify all the elections, reduce the term length for Senators to 4 years, ban re-election for Executive seats and increase their term length to 5 years.
Election system
Mayoral election
The mayoral election has a difference depending on the population of the municipality in question. In municipalities with up to 200,000 voters the first-past-the-post system is used, while in municipalities more than 200,000 the two-round system is used, in compliance with article 77 of the Constitution.The Municipality will be governed by an organic law, voted in two rounds, with a minimum intersection of ten days, and approved by two thirds of the members of the City Council, who will promulgate it, in compliance with the principles established in this Constitution, in the Constitution of the respective State and the following precepts:.
I - election of the Mayor, the Vice-Mayor and the Councilors, for a term of four years, by means of a direct and simultaneous election held throughout the country;
II - election of the Mayor and the Vice-Mayor held on the first Sunday of October of the year preceding the end of the mandate of those who must succeed, applying the rules of art. 77, in the case of Municipalities with more than two hundred thousand voters;
III - inauguration of the Mayor and the Vice-Mayor on January 1 of the year following the election;
IV - for the composition of the City Councils, the maximum limit of:
- Article 29 of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil
The election of the President and Vice-President of the Republic will take place, simultaneously, on the first Sunday of October, in the first round, and on the last Sunday of October, in the second round, if any, of the previous year. the end of the current presidential term.
§1. The election of the President of the Republic will import that of the Vice-President registered with him.
§2. The candidate who, registered by a political party, obtains an absolute majority of votes will be considered elected, not counting the blank and null votes.
§3. If no candidate reaches an absolute majority in the first vote, a new election will be held within twenty days after the result is proclaimed, with the two most voted candidates running and the one with the most valid votes being considered elected.
§4. If, before the second round takes place, death, withdrawal or legal impediment of a candidate occurs, the one with the most votes will be called, among the remainder.
§5. If, in the hypothesis of the previous paragraphs, more than one candidate with the same vote remains in second place, the oldest will be qualified.
- Article 77 of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil.