95 Favela Candidates Are Running for Rio de Janeiro’s City Council

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This article is part of a series of articles on Rio de Janeiro’s 2020 municipal elections from a favela perspective.

It is not only the electoral dispute for Mayor of Rio that is fierce. Earning a seat on City Council is also far from easy in the 2020 elections. In addition to the challenge of campaigning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of 1,812 Rio de Janeiro residents are competing for 51 City Council seats, including candidates who already occupy the position.

For this article, we sought to identify which among these 1,812 candidates are from favelas. We were able to identify 95 candidates (5.2%). The favelas of Complexo do Alemão, Maré, Rio das Pedras, and Rocinha are responsible for 36 candidates, 39% of the total from favelas. Ten Complexo do Alemão residents are running. On November 7, the newspaper Voz das Comunidades held an interview with candidates from Complexo do Alemão. The remaining candidates come from favelas such as Providência, Vila Vintém, Vila Kennedy, City of God, Jorge Turco, Morro do Dendê, Fumacê, and Cesarão, among others.

Among the candidacies linked to favelas, left, center-left, center, center-right and right-wing parties can be found. Favela candidates are also organizing themselves in increasingly common collective mandates. These are the first municipal elections in the country after the assassination of city councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was raised in Maré, elected with over 46,000 votes in 2016, and brutally shot with her driver Anderson Gomes, a Complexo do Alemão resident. For two and a half years, the streets, social networks, and world have asked “Who Killed Marielle Franco? And Why?” 

With the loss of Marielle, the need for favelas to be represented in municipal politics has become more urgent for many people. The list of candidates below was compiled from favela sources, candidate profiles, publications from community media, candidacies registered on the City Councilor We Want platform, the list of candidates committed to proposals in the Sustainable Favela Network‘s* commitment letter, the list of candidates committed to the Marielle Franco Agenda, the list of candidates committed to the The City We Want manifesto of the Brazilian Institute of Architects (IAB-Rio), and records released by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

But we know that many names are still missing. If you know about favela candidacies that are not listed below, please reach out to contato@rioonwatch.org.br so we can update this article.

City Council Candidates raised in or residents of favelas:

If you know candidates who are not listed above, write us an email at contato@rioonwatch.org.br so that we can update this article.

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