10 facts about the Brazilian general election 2014

 

1. The Brazilian general election will take place on October 5, with the possibility of a second round on the 26 of the same month.
2. In order to win the presidency, a candidate must win by an absolute majority, which means over 50% of the valid votes, excluding blank and null ones. If no candidate gets a majority, a second round is held. During the last 3 presidential elections that was the case, and second rounds were held between the two most voted candidates.
3. These elections are called general because Brazilians will choose their president, governors and federal and state deputies.
4. 26,131 candidates are running for 1,709 offices. There are 11 presidential candidates, 171 candidates for governor, 181 for senate positions, 6,749 for federal deputies, 16,235 for the office of federal legislator and 3,000 for the district parliament.
5. Brazil is a pioneer in e-voting. Its automated platform includes: biometric voter authentication, voting, results transmission and consolidation, awarding and results publishing. Since 1996, the country has been using voting machines and it is expected that all Brazilian voters will be enrolled on a biometric registry by 2017.

   

   Photo: www.justocantins.com.br

6. According to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), 21.6 million Brazilians, 15% of the voter registry, will use a biometric identification system which will be deployed in 762 municipalities, including the capital cities of 15 departments.
7. This election will see the use of 530 thousand voting machines to record the votes of 141.8 million Brazilians.
8. The South American nation faces this voting process with a robust satellite communication system, which guarantees access to the vote to those inhabiting the most remote areas of the Brazilian territory. Smartmatic, world leader in electoral technology and services, signed a contract with the Brazilian TSE to guarantee voice and data communication services in 15 of the country’s most remote states.
9. For these upcoming October elections, as it has happened in previous ones, several candidates have chosen to run using pseudonyms rather than their real names. Some examples are Mick Jagger from Brazil, Neyman Cover (candidates to the Sao Paulo federal and state city hall, respectively), and Tiché – Michael Jackson Cover (looking to be a state representative for Mato Grosso del Sul). There is also Spider Man (who wants to be a federal deputy for Bahia) and Batman Capixaba (a state deputy candidate for Espírito Santo).
10. During these elections, according to the Brazilian TSE, voters will take a little under 1:14 to vote using the machines.