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About 156 million Brazilian voters are called to the polls to renew the Congress and the Senate of Brazil, in addition to choosing the new President of the Republic. It will be next October 2. For the first time, there is a record number of indigenous candidates. They are 186 and represent many of the 256 ethnic groups that live in Brazil.
The objective for the next legislature is to create a parliamentary group that can defend from Brasilia the interests of the indigenous people, who denounce systematic attacks by the current president. In 2021, Jair Bolsonaro was even accused of genocide before the International Criminal Court in The Hague by a group of indigenous people, led by lawyer Luiz Henrique Eloy Terena.
Currently, there is only one indigenous deputy in Congress. She is called Joênia Wapichana and in 2018 she received 8,491 votes. Originally from the State of Roraima, she was the first indigenous woman to graduate in Law in Brazil, in 1997. Four years ago, another indigenous woman ran for vice-presidency of the Brazilian Republic. Sonia GuajajaraHe ran alongside leftist Guilherme Boulos, but together they got less than 1% of the vote.
This year Sonia, who has been included by the American magazine Time in the list of 100 most influential people in the world, intends to win one of the 513 seats in the Lower House. It is presented in São Paulo, the economic capital of Brazil, which is also the fourth municipality with the largest indigenous population in the country. There live 13,000 of the nearly 900,000 natives who inhabit this vast country.
“For us, the number of candidates who have registered for the elections does not matter. What we want is quality and representatives who can really be elected. It is important to have viable candidacies in all the federated states and that they have consensus, so that we can increase our representativeness,” says Sonia, who belongs to the Guajajara ethnic group in the State of Maranhão.
From the capital, this woman intends to fight for the demarcation of indigenous lands, a historical reparation procedure that was interrupted by Bolsonaro to please the agrarian lobby. In addition, he wants to promote the creation of an indigenous ministry and the appointment of an indigenous person for the presidency of the National Indian Foundation (Funai), the body created to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples. Today it is the target of criticism for its inoperability.
This year’s elections are also marked by another outstanding fact. For the first time, the number of African candidates exceeds that of whites, in a country where 54% of the population defines itself as Afro-descendant. Specifically, there are 4,135 black candidates and 10,575 Afro-descendants, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court. In total, they add up to 14,710 applications, compared to 14,103 for whites. small left parties lead the ranking of Afro candidatessuch as the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), the Communist Party of Brazil and the Brazilian Women’s Party.
Renata Souza is currently a deputy in the Rio de Janeiro Parliament for the PSOL and is trying to renew her mandate. She grew up in a favela in Rio de Janeiro and managed to study journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the best in the city, thanks to a full scholarship. She today she is a recognized defender of human rights.
She began her political career alongside the black councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was brutally executed in 2018. That same year, Renata was the most voted deputy in Rio de Janeiro. Initially considered the natural heiress of Marielle, today she has conquered an independent role in the political spectrum thanks to her energetic actions since the presidency of the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj). In May 2019, she denounced the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Wilson Witzel, before the United Nations. for the deadly police operations carried out in favelas with the use of helicopters as shooting platforms.
This 40-year-old policy attributes the increase in the number of Afro candidates to a new quota system imposed on parties by law, which requires them to allocate part of the funds granted by the State to female candidates (never less than 30%) and black candidates. “This was a significant change so that black people could present their candidacies,” explains Renata.
However, none of the 10 main parties in Brazil has allocated all the funds established by the Electoral Justice for Afro-descendants and women, in violation of the law. Even so, this year the number of candidates increased: they represent 34% of the total. “It is still very little. We only have 15% of women deputies in the National Congress, while in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean this percentage reaches 29% or 30%. In other words, Brazil is still far behind in terms of the representation of women, especially black women,” says this deputy.
With 51% women, Brazil occupies position 145 in a ranking of 187 countries on female representation in politics. There is still a long way to go to parity.
