On November 15, the first round of voting for the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections will begin at 7 am local time. This is the first election in Brazil’s history during the epidemic.
The number of qualified voters registered in Brazil this year reached 147,918,483, and the number of voters increased by 2.66% compared with 2016. Brazil’s political elections adopt a mandatory voting system.
Except for people aged 16 to 18, and people over 70 years of age, and those who are unable to read or write voluntarily to vote, other citizens of the right age must vote.
Those who do not vote will be subject to legal restrictions on civil rights, employment and wages.
In the current municipal elections in Brazil, voters will elect 5,568 mayors and 69,344 city councillors from 19,346 candidates for mayor and 518,328 candidates for city councillors.
Except for the city of Macapa, the capital of Amapá state, which is still suffering from power outages, Brazil’s national polling station opened at 7 o’clock that morning.
Due to 13 consecutive days of power outages in Macapa, the city’s power supply has not been fully restored and energy and public security cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, the city postponed this year’s municipal elections to December.
Brazil municipal elections
Brazil municipal elections Considering that this year’s municipal elections were held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brazilian Congress passed a constitutional amendment in July to postpone the voting time for municipal councillors in the first round of elections this year from October 4 to November.
On the 15th, the second round of mayor elections was postponed from October 25 to November 29.
At the beginning of October, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court issued the “Health Guarantee Plan” for the 2020 municipal elections. The court has formulated a series of epidemic prevention measures for voters and election staff who participated in the voting.
The opening hours of polling stations this year are one hour earlier than previous polling days. The three hours from 7:00 to 10:00 on that day are priority voting periods for people over 60, police, and medical staff.
In accordance with the provisions of the “Health Protection Plan”, all polling stations are equipped with alcohol disinfection devices. Voters can only enter the polling stations when they wear masks.
At the same time, voters are encouraged to bring their own signature pens. In order to avoid cross-contagion, this year’s election vote cancelled the previous procedure of using biometrics to verify voters’ fingerprints, and election staff only checked the voters’ valid identity documents.
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court stipulated that voters of the right age who contracted the Coronavirus within 14 days before the municipal election day or had a fever on that day can not vote if they have a medical certificate .
