The (Superior Electoral Court) is discussing establishing hetero-identification boards, to ensure that the minimum quota of 30% of the electoral fund and party fund for black candidates is used by those who are truly entitled and, thus, from 2026.
According to the court, the commissions that prepare the rules for the election will take the proposal to public hearings and then submit it to the ministers for decision.
The minimum transfer has been mandatory since 2022, but Congress approved an amnesty for parties last year. For 2026, execution is at risk due to loopholes, such as double dealings with white people in campaigns and lack of control over racial self-declaration.
In terms of color and race between municipal women in 2020 and 2024, according to a survey by Sheet.
President of Tucanafro, the black militant group, Gabriela Cruz states that a group of parties asked the TSE to regulate hetero-identification booths in 2024.
They verify, based on the candidate’s physical characteristics (phenotype), the veracity of the racial self-declaration. The model started to be used in universities and public competitions.
“We are organizing ourselves to request this again. The quotas were created to give black and brown people the opportunity to occupy spaces of power. We need to be careful with identification to combat fraud”, says Gabriela.
She promises that Tucanafro will carry out its own verification, even if the TSE again does not address the matter.
According to the TSE, the proposal was suggested outside the deadline for resolutions for that year’s elections.
“For this reason, they became part of a set of measures — especially relating to specific representations (black people, women, indigenous people and people with disabilities) — that are currently being analyzed by the commissions,” stated the court.
These commissions, such as Racial Equality, will propose to ministers the rules for the 2026 elections. “All proposals are submitted to public hearings and, subsequently, voted on and approved by the TSE plenary through a resolution, until March of next year”, says the court.
The change in the quota of electoral and party funds occurred after coordination involving all large and medium-sized parties, from PT to PL, to provide amnesty for non-compliance with this rule created by the Courts in the 2022 election.
Congress issued a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) that granted this pardon and established a minimum transfer rate of 30% for candidacies.
The previous rule, created by the Court, was that the transfer of electoral and party funds should be equal to or greater than the percentage of black and brown candidates. If 50% of a party’s competitors were black, 50% of the public money received for campaigns should go to these candidacies.
Martvs Chagas, National Secretary for Combating Racism, states that the party approved the creation of the hetero-identification panel in the last election, but did not implement it because, as the quota was proportional to the number of candidates, there was not much point in defrauding it.
Now, as the minimum percentage of 30% has been established, the structure will be used to ensure that only candidates who are actually brown or black are registered as such and are entitled to the quota of resources.
“The commission will also have to do some of this embarrassing work [a fraudes]”, it says.
The non-compliance with quotas for black people was questioned in the (Supreme Federal Court) by Educafro. There were four meetings with minister Luís Roberto Barroso, rapporteur and then president of the court.
“He gave us hope, he said he was worried about the situation. But, in my personal reading, as there were tensions in several other processes, he preferred not to go ahead”, says Frei David, founder of the NGO.
Barroso left command of the court, and Educafro took the matter to the new president, Edson Fachin, who scheduled the action shortly afterwards, for October 22nd. Barroso, however, and now the process depends on the Senate choosing the new STF minister.
Frei David also accuses what he considers another type of fraud. “We want to avoid traps like the white mayor who, to divert money [da cota]placed a black deputy. This happened in the four corners of Brazil”, he states.
The intention to exploit this loophole was confirmed to the report by politicians of different stripes. The strategy is to pass the money on to the black candidate, who would pay for the white candidate’s propaganda material.
Lawyer Ricardo Porto, a specialist in electoral law, states that double advertising is legal and beneficial.
“If he [negro] If you are a less expressive candidate, you will stick your image on a stronger one. This means that it appears in the material with great vote pulls”, he says. “What cannot be done is the mere transfer of the resource. This is treated as fraud by the Electoral Court.”
