Rio de Janeiro has 2,017 registered candidates for the 2026 general election, the lowest number since 1998 and a 45% drop over eight years, according to an analysis by G1 based on data from the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court. The state had 3,695 candidates in 2018, the record for the historical series, and 2,785 in 2022.
Most are running for a seat in the state legislature, the Alerj. There are 1,168 candidates for state deputy, 57% of the total, and 783 for federal deputy, 38%. The survey also counts 16 candidates for the Senate, 9 for governor, 9 for vice governor and 16 for each of the two Senate alternate seats.
Party rules explain the decline
G1 links the drop to three changes in Brazil's party structure: a smaller number of parties, the creation of party federations and new rules for proportional races. In legislative elections, parties and federations can register candidates up to 100% of the seats in dispute plus one. When parties join a federation, they share that cap instead of fielding full slates of their own. Federations were created in 2021 and applied for the first time in 2022.
The performance clause, created by Constitutional Amendment 97/2017, reinforced the trend. In 2026, parties must win at least 2.5% of the valid votes for the Chamber of Deputies, spread over at least one third of the states with a minimum of 1.5% in each, or elect at least 13 federal deputies in at least one third of the federation units. Parties that fall short lose access to public party funding and free radio and TV time.
"With fewer parties, because they merged or formed a federation, the tendency is to have a smaller number of candidates," election lawyer Fabricio Souza Duarte, who holds a master's degree in public law, told G1.
For Duarte, the decline makes races less competitive for newcomers to party politics. "There is a great concentration of power in the hands of the party leadership, which directly interferes in the competitiveness of candidates who have no influence in that circle," he said. He also pointed to mandatory congressional budget amendments, which expand the ability of incumbents to build support among mayors and city council members.
Who the candidates are
Of all registration requests, 67% are men and 33% are women. In proportional races, the law requires each gender to hold between 30% and 70% of the candidacies. The largest age group is 50 to 54, with 372 candidates, followed by 45 to 49 (344) and 55 to 59 (274). Together, the three brackets account for 990 people, about 49% of the total. There are 13 candidates aged 21 to 24 and two aged 90 to 94.
More than half of the candidates, 51%, identify as Black or mixed-race. On education, 48% have completed a university degree and another 11% attended college without graduating.
The registration requests still face review by the electoral courts, which can approve or reject each candidacy. The first round of voting is scheduled for October 4.