Despite a record number of candidates, the number of elected military drops in the country | Choice in numbers

If only council members are taken into account, the drop is 11% in the total from military careers. As for mayors, there was a slight increase. Four years ago, 33 of them managed to reach the municipal executive. This year, there are 36. But the contingent is low compared to the total number of candidates who tried to win a city council: 387.

For the executive director of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Samira Bueno, public security has been one of the three major issues that most concerns the population for years, which prompts the candidacy of police officers, considered legitimate to address the issue.

“However, after the 2018 far-right wave, which largely coincides with the discourse of the security forces candidates, this election seems to indicate a move to the center,” says Samira Bueno.

To make the comparison, the G1 considered the information on the occupation of the candidates sent to the TSE. In other words, all those who identified themselves as military or civil police, military firefighters, members of the Armed Forces and retired military are counted.

In total, this year 587 candidates for councilor who are presented as coming from the security forces were elected. There were 5,968 in dispute. In 2016, 660 were elected.

The state with the highest number of candidates to be elected was São Paulo (89). Minas Gerais (75), Paraná (39) and Rio Grande do Sul appear in sequence. In Rio de Janeiro, the electoral base of President Jair Bolsonaro, 38 candidates were elected.

São Paulo also tops the list with the most elected mayors from the security forces: 8. It is followed by the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais, with four mayors elected each.

PSD tops list of elected military advisers

The cut by party shows that the PSD was the one that more councilors of the security forces elected. In total, 72 were chosen to occupy a seat in the city councils. In second place is the BMD, with 69, followed by PP (61).

However, the PSL, the party that launched the most military candidates, managed to elect only 34 military advisers. And the Republicans, second with the most candidates, only appear in fifth place (with 36 elected).

“The data reinforce this feeling of movement towards the center, since a good part of the police candidacies were from right-wing parties. And the Centrão parties seem to be the big winners of this election, ”says Samira.

Of the 36 mayors of the Armed Forces, five are from the PP. They were elected in the municipalities of Cachoeira de Goiás (Goiás), Costa Rica (Mato Grosso do Sul), Cajazeiras do Piauí and Pau D´Arco do Piauí, both in the state of Piauí, and Itaquaquecetuba, in São Paulo.

In the second place with the most mayors from the security forces, Vamos appears, with four elected deputies, in the states of Paraíba, Paraná, Rondônia and São Paulo. Cidadania elected three military mayors, in the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul.

Record number of subscribers this year

As the G1 As he demonstrated, this election had a record in the number of military candidates, compared to the last four municipal elections.

At the start of the series, in 2004, there were 5,856 military candidates. In 2020, the total reached 6,755. The largest increase in the period was for candidates who identified themselves as retired military personnel. In 2004, more than 1,200 tried to become councilors or mayors. This year, the number increased to 1,7 thousand.

In this year’s elections, the party that launched the most military applications was the PSL, with 649 registered. Then there are the Republicans (433), PSD (422) and MDB (402). Despite registering more military candidates, the PSL elected only three mayors from the security forces: in Planaltina (Goiás), Douradina (Paraná) and Rincão (São Paulo).

Experts criticize the increase in military applications. According to them, the role of the military in politics often confuses the roles they will have to play once elected. The director-president of the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, Renato Sérgio Lima, says that military candidates tend to support more the discourse of “law and order” and not effective policies in the field of security.

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