A história do direito ao voto no Brasil

Abstract

The electoral process is a means by which one chooses the authorities that will act in the name of the citizen and that legitimizes this representation, being carried out by means of the vote. The first elections took place in the Colony, where by means of a system of two degrees, the local government was indirectly elected, and then by a four-degree system, deputies were elected to the Lisbon Courts. In the Empire there were elections for the governments of the cities and provinces, but the right to vote was determined by means of a literary and economic census. During the First Republic, those who were not illiterate directly elected the President of the Republic, the Vice President and the representatives of the National Congress; and in the States and Municipalities, if the representatives of the positions of the Executive and Legislative were voted, according to its Constitutions. With the Revolution of 1930, the electoral process had been renewed, highlighting the creation of Electoral Justice, the introduction of female suffrage, guaranteed secret ballot and the adoption of the proportional system of election. However, this experience was interrupted with the coup of 1937. The 1946 Constitution reintroduced all the changes that the 1932 Constitution brought to the Electoral Law, which made Brazil have a rich democratic experience until 1964. In the Military Regime, remained the electoral capacity criteria of the previous Charter. However, in addition to indirect elections for the Presidency of the Republic, the representative system was based on bipartisanship. Currently, representatives to the positions of the Executive and Legislative are directly elected through the majority and proportional system, and universal suffrage is guaranteed through direct and secret voting, and the need for illiterates is the necessity to enlist and vote. Therefore, knowing the various forms of electoral capacity during Brazilian history, it makes sense the meaning that caput, article 14, of the Federal Constitution, offers to the form of popular sovereignty.