The campaign for this year’s municipal elections was record-setting in terms of political violence in the last decade, as revealed by research carried out by the organizations Justiça Global and Terra de Direito, released this Monday (16). Between November 2022 and October 2024, there were 714 cases of violence directed at people who applied. It was the highest number since the beginning of the series that began in 2016. According to an analysis by the entities that carried out the survey, impunity is responsible for the growth in the number of cases. 
The coordinator of Political Incidence at Terra de Direito, Gisele Barbieri, assesses that periods of municipal elections have been more violent. “We understand that the state’s responses as a whole to this violence have been below expectations. This causes this violence to become natural and causes episodes to become increasingly frequent”, he pondered.
Municipal elections in the historical series saw an increase in this situation. In 2016, 46 cases were registered. This number grew to 214 cases in 2020 and, in 2024, there was a jump to 558 cases. This represents an increase of 344 cases in the four years between 2020 and 2024 or growth of approximately 2.6 times compared to 2020. Compared to 2016, the increase is 12 times.
For the deputy director of Justiça Global, Daniele Duarte, violence in municipal elections is related to territorial disputes in municipalities. “Research shows that municipal elections are more violent. From the historical series, we saw this increase in the number of threats in relation to women candidates, pre-candidates and their advisors as well”, he says.
Women as targets
The researchers estimate that, in addition to murders and attacks, threats and offenses are increasing more towards women. They, whether cisgender or transgender, were targets of 274 cases, representing 38.4% of total cases. Virtual attacks make up around 40% of incidents against women and 73.5% of offenses in the pre-election period occurred in parliamentary or campaign environments, with 80% of the attackers being cisgender men, also parliamentarians.
“Of the 714 general cases in the period that we analyzed, 274 are against women. Considering black and brown women, there are 126 cases (…) Men are also more victims because they are in greater numbers within the political system. When we are able to identify the aggressors, almost 80% are also men”, explains researcher Gisele Barbieri.
She explains that Law 14,192, approved in 2021, made political gender violence a crime. “It is a law that still needs to be expanded and improved, because we can see almost no case falling within this law. The justice system is also slow to respond to these cases”, says Gisele Barbieri.
Internet
Another aspect that the Terra de Direito coordinator emphasizes is that the lack of internet regulation ends up encouraging the expansion of forms of violence. “More than 70% of the threats we had in 2024 and 2023 are made through social networks, email and digital platforms”, he states.
According to Daniele Duarte, from Justiça Global, the growth in virtual attacks victimizes women more. The lack of efficient internet legislation contributes to a lack of investigation. “Today there are many mechanisms for those threatening to hide, so that justice cannot access them and cannot reach them. This also increases the number of threat cases.” She adds that these threats arrive with personal information about candidates.
Elevation
In the 2018 presidential elections, one person was a victim of political violence every eight days. In 2022, there were three people every two days and, in 2024, there are almost two people victims of political violence per day.
This year, there were 558 cases, with 27 murders, 129 attacks, 224 threats, 71 physical attacks, 81 offenses, 16 criminalizations and 10 invasions. Threats are the most recurrent type of violence, accounting for almost 40% of total cases during the year.
The most common violence was threats (135 cases), followed by 19 reports of rape threats. The states with the most occurrences were São Paulo (108), Rio de Janeiro (69), Bahia (57) and Minas Gerais (49).
Measurements
The researchers emphasize that it is essential that public authorities adopt combat actions, such as effective programs against political violence in legislative bodies, improvement of laws and expanded security for teams and collective mandates.
The entities defend, for example, that the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) adopt campaigns against hate speech, racism and gender-based violence. The electoral and justice system would be responsible for supporting victims, structured channels for reporting and speedy trial of cases.
The study highlights the urgent need for coordination between civil society, democratic institutions and political parties to stop the spread of violence and strengthen democracy in Brazil. “It’s a collective responsibility”, says the researcher at Justiça Global.
