St. Paul
The 2024 elections, which will choose the next mayors and city councilors of Brazilian cities, will have new rules. Some of these rules were implemented in the 2022 elections and will now be applied to municipal elections for the first time.
Among the new topics are the fight against fake news, gender-based political violence, the use of party resources and electoral funds and fundraising for electoral campaigns. The party federations, already present in the presidential elections, make their debut in the dispute for seats in the municipalities.
Since 2020, changes to the electoral law, the electoral code and the law on political parties have been approved. There is also the promulgation of a constitutional amendment on the use of public funds for the political system and the jurisprudence of the TSE (Higher Electoral Court) and the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
Furthermore, the TSE still needs to approve changes to the resolutions that will be valid for the 2024 elections, the deadline is March 5.
Here are the main rule changes for the 2024 elections:
Political violence against women
In 2021, a law was enacted that created the crime of political violence against women, which provides for a penalty of one to four years in prison in the event of harassment, embarrassment, humiliation, persecution or threat, by any means, to a candidate or woman holding an elective office.
If the violence occurs online and on social media, the sentence can reach up to six years.
If the victim is pregnant, over 60 years old or is a person with a disability, the prison period increases, and the law also expressly prohibits electoral propaganda that depreciates the condition of women, or that encourages any type of discrimination.
Fight against disinformation
One of the most important rulings of the TSE period was delivered in 2021, when the Court ruled that the spread of misinformation about the electoral system promoted by the media can lead to the ineligibility of a politician, as happened with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
Also in 2021, a section of the Electoral Code was modified on the crime of disclosing untrue facts relating to candidates or parties, providing for the penalty to be increased by one third to one half, if it is committed in the press, internet or social media, that is, if it is transmitted in real time. The same applies if it involves discrimination against women or contempt for color, race or ethnicity.
One of the TSE draft resolutions for the 2024 campaign includes obligations for social networks, placing the responsibility on platforms to prevent and reduce disinformation in elections, and also deals with artificial intelligence.
Federations
Also in 2021, a project for the creation of party federations was approved. The mechanism authorizes party alliances in the electoral dispute, in a similar way to what happened in coalitions, by adding the television times and joining in the calculation of the electoral quotient (number of seats received with an acronym based on the number of votes received).
The partnership, however, continued for the next four years. The 2022 elections were the first with the possibility of party federations, and this year’s will be the first municipal elections to have this mechanism.
Applications
Recent changes to the electoral law and electoral code have reduced the limit of candidates a party can register for proportional vacancies (corresponding to councilor vacancies). If before it was possible to reach between 150% and 200% of the vacancies in the city council, now it is possible to cast only 100% plus one of the candidates for the municipal legislature.
In other words, if in a city with 40 seats in the Chamber a party could only field 80 candidates, now it can only field 41.
Electoral fund resources
A provision has been inserted into the Constitution which establishes a financial quota for the allocation of resources from the electoral fund, the party fund and television and radio time, respecting a minimum of 30% of female candidates.
And, as of 2020, there is TSE case law that requires acronyms to allocate amounts of public funds to Black candidates in proportion to White candidates.
Fundraising and popular consultations
The TSE has authorized, in an administrative session, the possibility of collecting campaigns via Pix, as long as the recipient’s key is a CPF.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court has authorized the holding of artistic performances and presentations to raise funds for electoral campaigns, as long as they do not promote a specific candidacy.
The possibility of popular consultations on local issues in municipal elections also came into force. City councils in all cities must approve and send applications to the electoral court up to 90 days before the election for voters to have their say.
2024-01-21 02:15:00
#Discover #main #rule #elections #Power