Despite warnings from authorities across the country about the advance of organized crime in Brazilian politics, most major parties are preparing for the next conventions without having adopted specific measures to prevent members of criminal factions from reaching the polls.
According to the calendar of the (Superior Electoral Court), the parties had until April 4th to register those who intend to contest and, between July 20th and August 5th, they need to hold conventions to define tickets, which will be registered by August 15th.
Survey carried out by Sheet in the updated records at the TSE of the eight parties with the most seats in the Chamber of Deputies (, , , , , , and ), which represent 80% of the House, it points out that only one, the MDB, has officially issued a specific complementary rule, valid for 2026, to prevent membership of members of criminal organizations.
In the document, published in March, the party prohibits the affiliation and candidacy of “people linked to criminal factions, militias, paramilitary groups or similar criminal organizations”, attributing to the party itself the background checks, origin of resources and links of members and pre-candidates.
Among the seven remaining parties, there are possibilities for members to be terminated, but none provide for screening before joining — which already gives access to the party structure.
PT and Republicans provide for automatic or discretionary expulsion after criminal conviction with final judgment. Podemos and PP punish cases of administrative improbity. PSD and União Brasil limit themselves to reproducing electoral legislation. The PL provides for challenging the membership of anyone who “assumes reprehensible personal conduct”, without objective criteria.
Last December, in a report outlining the risks to the Brazilian State for 2026, the (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) stated that “the growing symbiosis between the criminalization of politics and the politicization of crime highlights the capacity of militias and factions to influence the electoral process”.
Rio de Janeiro was one of the main examples of faction infiltration. An investigation by the Federal Police showed that, in September 2025, the then president of Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro), Rodrigo Bacellar (União Brasil), warned the then state deputy (now without a party, at the time MDB), suspected of links with the CV (Comando Vermelho), about a police operation.
TH Joias already had a sentence of 14 years and 11 months in prison for drug trafficking and association for drug trafficking, a conviction he was still appealing when he applied for the MDB. According to data from the TSE, the party transferred R$300,000 to its campaign in 2022.
The defenses of Bacellar and TH Joias deny the accusations.
The MDB states that the rule is not related to the TH Joias case, but rather to the increase in alerts on the topic. He was expelled from the acronym.
The scenario is not restricted to Rio. In São Paulo, the Civil Police and the MP-SP (Public Ministry of São Paulo) launched at least four operations (Munditia, Decurio, Contaminatio and TAC) between 2024 and 2026 against crimes such as bid fraud, corruption, embezzlement and money laundering. Seven politicians, from cities in Greater São Paulo and Baixada Santista, from the MDB, PSD and Podemos parties, were arrested or received restrictive measures amid accusations of links with the (Primeiro Comando da Capital). The schemes mainly involved city halls.
A difference pointed out by experts interviewed by the report is that deputies and senators have access to parliamentary amendments — resources that can be paid even without prior projects for social organizations contracted without bidding, with fragile tracking systems, questioned by the (Supreme Federal Court).
In the São Paulo operations, the MP-SP found a series of signs that the groups under investigation were already making use of federal amendments. According to Sheet found, the material was sent to the Attorney General’s Office and remains under investigation.
Getulio Vargas Foundation professor Rafael Alcadipani, member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, criticizes the parties’ passivity in dealing with the issue, highlighting that the parties are financed by public resources and would have enough money to investigate the candidates’ past lives.
Alcadipani, who has been researching police work for 20 years, believes that the acronyms distract from the topic given the economic power of organized crime. “I see no interest on the part of the parties in removing these people, many of whom are capable of bringing financial resources”, he states.
Members of the parties sought by the report highlight that, in the definitions of the lists, the acronyms adopt measures to check the previous life of possible candidates, citing legal structures and compliance areas dedicated to the function, and state that, in cases of suspicion, the directories can reject candidates.
This search, however, prioritizes compliance with the requirements of the Lima Record Law, which does not prevent the election of a person convicted in the first instance.
Electoral lawyer Tailaine Costa highlights the objective limits. “How can you classify a person as a member of a faction without a prior conviction?” he asks, warning that a tool without objective criteria could even be used by candidates who want to block rivals.
Another lawyer in the area, Leticia Maestra highlights that, in a ruling last year, the TSE endorsed a decision by Rio that rejected the candidacy of a councilor from Belford Roxo, in Baixada Fluminense, for involvement with a militia, even without a conviction in the second instance.
The lawyer assesses that “this decision would at least be an indication of how the TSE would approach this issue if the parties were to create this type of rule”. The TSE has already had two other similar decisions.
Under reservation, one of the prosecutors from Gaeco (Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime) in São Paulo, in charge of the investigations, said that, since the United States began moving to classify PCC and CV as terrorist organizations, financial institutions began asking for guidance on the matter and requesting the preparation of lists of faction members — to indicate people from whom they should keep their distance.
The prosecutor highlighted that the parties never approached the group to discuss a similar topic.
The creation of a National Registry of Individuals Affiliated with Criminal Factions has been discussed in the National Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office since last year, but it comes up against issues such as the presumption of innocence of individuals without criminal convictions.
A Sheet He contacted the TSE, which did not respond. All the parties mentioned were contacted and asked whether any members were barred this year due to suspected links with factions and what preventive measures they adopt.
The PSD stated that it adopted “all measures within its reach” to present suitable candidates and said that its São Paulo directory previously analyzes pre-candidates based on the certificates required for registration. In case of complaints, it says to take action.
Podemos stated that it has “a structured compliance program with channels available for communicating any irregularity in relation to its members” and that it can expel any person reported depending on the severity of the facts proven.
The two parties, which had members arrested in the São Paulo operations, did not inform in their notes why the internal instruments did not raise alerts in relation to these members.
PL president, Valdemar Costa Neto, told Sheet that the party never discussed measures to avoid contamination by factions.
“We never discuss this issue in the party and I’m curious to see articles from these factions, which I don’t imagine are as big as they seem. There are a lot of criminals. Why don’t we ever discuss this issue? Because criminals only live with criminals”, he said.
The other parties did not respond to the report’s contact request.
