DEM, PP and PSD increase the number of councilors in Brazil; MDB, PT, PSDB, PDT and PSB registered a reduction | Choice in numbers

However, the reductions were not uniform. While large parties such as MDB, PT, PSDB, PSB, and PDT posted a decline, other subtitles performed positively, such as DEM, PP, PSD, PL, and Republicans. A third group formed by smaller parties registers a sharp drop in the number of elected representatives in the Chambers.

Despite presenting a 3% reduction in the number of councilors, the BMD maintained its leadership in the country, with more than 7,300 elected representatives. However, there were changes in the following positions. The PSDB, which finished the 2016 elections in second place with the largest council of councilors, is in fourth place this time, with a drop of 18%.

The second place of the parties with the most councilors is now the PP, with 6.3 thousand elected. The item registered an increase of 34% compared to 2016, when it was in the third position. The third place now comes from the PSD, with 5.6 thousand councilors. In 2016, the party ranked fourth in number of councilors.

In the group of large parties, in addition to PSDB and MDB, PT (-5%), PDT (-9%) and PSB (-17%) also showed a decrease in the total number of councilors. The DEM grew by 49% and now occupies the fifth position with the highest number of councilors. The PSL, the party for which Jair Bolsonaro was elected president, also grew. It went from 878 councilors in 2016 to 1,200, an increase of 37%.

It also falls in small parties

This was the first municipal election after the end of the proportional coalition approved in the Constitutional Amendment of 2017. The new norm prohibited, as of 2020, the possibility that the parties form coalitions with other legends in disputes for the positions of councilor, federal and state deputy.

With the end of proportional coalitions, the votes received by a candidate can only be added together to elect the councilors of the party itself. In the model that prevailed until then, the votes of voters for one party candidate could help elect another from a second party that was part of the coalition.

To make comparisons, the G1 in 2016 it considered the additions made by subtitles. Some just changed their names, like PPS, which became Citizenship. Others, however, are the result of the union with other subtitles, such as Pode, which brought together the former PTN and PHS.

The largest proportional drop among the 21 parties analyzed was among parties that were already small, such as PMB (79%), DC (-71%), PMN (-62%) and PTC (-62%). The largest proportional increase in the total number of elected councilors was Novo (625%), even though it now only has 29 councilors. Avante, ex PT do B, presented the second highest proportional variation: 116%.

Effects of the end of coalitions

In the evaluation of the political science professor and coordinator of the Laboratory of Parties and Party Systems of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) Bruno Bolognesi, the data indicate some characteristics, especially the reduction in the size of large subtitles and the increase in the average of the subtitles.

According to the professor, the aim of the coalitions in proportional groups was to reduce party fragmentation in Brazil, but, according to Bolognesi, we must be cautious about the other effects that it also stimulated, such as the launch of more candidates for mayors. with the aim of getting votes for proportional positions. Another incentive of the system, according to him, was the end of the coefficient for the definition of “leftovers”, that is, to cover the vacancies that remain after the calculations of the votes obtained by the parties.

“We had many candidacies in the majority that brought down the fragmentation. Everyone wanted to have their own list. Thus, the system worked as before, when there were coalitions. We had cities where there was an increase in effective parties in the Chambers, such as Goiânia. and Belém. So it is a paradox. We had more parties with fewer candidates, but more parties competing for the vote. And that helped not reduce fragmentation to the expected extent. ”

Regarding the average increase in parties, the professor points out that this is a trend already observed in federal elections. According to Bolognesi, the Chamber of Deputies has been increasing fragmentation in recent years and this has occurred with the increase in middle parties.

“There are two ways of fragmenting. Either you have two or three large parties and many small ones, or you have many medium parties. In Brazil, we have seen this phenomenon precisely with this second mechanism, which is not simply having left.” Again, it is dehydrating the middle party. The parties in the middle have been gaining strength in Brazil. PSD, DEM, PSD and Republicans have been growing in recent years. And the big games have been dehydrating since 2014 ”.