Parties, coalitions and federations have until this Thursday (15) to register candidates for mayor and councilor for this year’s municipal elections, scheduled for October 6, with a possible second round on October 27 in municipalities with more than 200 thousand voters. 
To date, more than 400,000 candidates have been registered, 13,997 for mayor, 379,320 for councilor and the rest for vice-mayor (around 6,680).
According to the electoral calendar, the deadline for requesting registration online ended at 8 am this Thursday. However, parties, federations or the candidate themselves can still submit their registration in person, at the electoral office, until 7 pm.
Registration is a procedure through which the party informs the Electoral Court of all the required data about a candidacy, including photograph, kinship, assets and criminal records, among others.
It is also necessary to present the minutes of the party convention that ratified the candidacy. In the case of candidates for mayor, a program with the candidate’s proposals must also be attached.
Each registration generates a process that must be judged by the Electoral Court, in which it must be analyzed whether all the documentation is in order, that is, whether the candidacy meets all the legal criteria. It is also verified whether the candidate does not incur any hypothesis of the Clean Record Law, for example.
According to electoral rules, electoral judges have until September 16 to judge all registrations. It is not uncommon, however, for candidates whose registration is denied to vote to keep their names on the ballot through injunctions (provisional decisions), while they appeal the denial.
Some candidates may be able to take office if elected, but will have their mandate revoked if they are unable to confirm the validity of their registration.
According to the Constitution, candidates for mayor must be at least 21 years old. For city council members, the minimum age is 18. In all cases, candidates must have Brazilian nationality and party affiliation, in addition to having electoral domicile in the locality where they intend to run.
Illiterate people, foreigners and military personnel in mandatory service are not eligible to run for office. Relatives up to the second degree, by blood or otherwise, of mayors are also not eligible to run for office. Case law also prohibits a mayor who has already served two terms in a municipality from running for the same office again in another municipality.
Candidate registrations may be questioned by opponents or parties, or by the Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPE), within 5 days of the publication of the notice informing the registration request.
Each party acronym, coalition or federation may have only one candidate for mayor and deputy mayor in each municipality. In the case of councilors, coalitions are not permitted, and each party or federation may have as candidates up to the total number of seats to be occupied in the respective assemblies, plus one.
* Article changed at 12:03 to add information
