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Brazil
Women in decision-making positions
16%
Members of local deliberative bodies are women (10,647 elected women)
No woman is Head of State/Government
18%
Parliamentarians are women
37%
Ministers are women

Government organization

Brazil ­­­­­­­is a federal republic with three spheres of government: federal, intermediate (the states and the Federal District), and local.

One tier of central government, one tier of intermediate government composed of states and the Federal districts, and one tier of local government below the states.
Federal government
  • Head of State: The President of the Republic is directly elected by voters.
  • Head of Government: The President of the Republic is the Head of State and the Head of Government.
  • Legislative body: The National Congress is a bicameral legislature, with an upper house (the Federal Senate), and a lower house (the Chamber of Deputies). Members of the National Congress are directly elected by voters.
  • Executive body: The powers of the executive are exercised by the President of the Republic, assisted by the Ministers of the Federal Government, who are appointed by the President of the Republic.
Federal District and state government
  • Legislative body: The legislative assembly (in states) and the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District (in the Federal District) are composed of members who are directly elected by voters.
  • Executive body: The governor, assisted by a lieutenant governor, is directly elected by voters.
Local government
  • Organization: Local government is organized into one tier of 5,570 municipalities. There is no organized local government within the Federal District; the Federal District has the legislative competencies reserved to the states and municipalities.
  • Competencies: Local government is responsible for legislating on subjects of local interest, supplementing federal and state legislation, organizing essential public services of local interest, promoting territorial ordering through planning, and instituting and collecting taxes within their jurisdiction.
  • Ministerial oversight: Ministry of Regional Development

Overview of local government

Local government composition
Municipalities (municípios)

Deliberative body: The municipal council is composed of 9-55 elected members. A council president is elected by and from the municipal council to preside over it; the council president is not vested with executive powers.

Executive body: The mayor, assisted by a vice-mayor, is the executive at the municipal level of government.

Local government elections
Electoral system

Electoral system: for municipal chambers: proportional representation (open list)

  • An open party-list proportional electoral system is used for municipal council elections, according to the d’Hondt system of seat allocation. For elections using the proportional electoral system, each ballot has a space for the voter to write the name/number of the selected candidate, or the acronym/number of the party of the voter’s preference.

Electoral system for mayors: majority/plurality (first-past-the-post)

  • Mayors are directly elected by voters, using a separate ballot from the municipal chamber election.

Source: Electoral Code, 1965 (amended through 2021), articles 83, 84, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110 and 112

Quotas

Gender quotas: Legislated candidate quotas

  • For the municipal council elections, each candidate list must consist of 30-70% of each gender.

Additional quotas: No

Source: Election Law, 1997 (amended through 2021), article 10§3

Term of elections
  • Term length: 4 years
  • Last local elections: 2020 
  • Next local elections: 2024
Electoral management body

­Superior Electoral Court; Regional Electoral Court

National legal framework on local government
National legal framework
  • Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Acre, 1989 (amended through 2017);
  • Constitution of the State of Alagoas, 1989 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Amapá, 1991 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Amazonas, 1989 (amended through 2022);
  • Constitution of the State of Bahia, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Ceará, 1989 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Goiás, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Maranhão, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Mato Grosso, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Minas Gerais, 1989 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Pará, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Espírito Santo, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Paraíba, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Paraná, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Pernambuco, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Piauí, 1988 (amended through 2019);
  • Constitution of the State of Rio de Janeiro, 1989 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, 1989 (amended through 2020);
  • Constitution of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Rondônia, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Roraima, 1991 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Santa Catarina, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of São Paulo, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Sergipe, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Constitution of the State of Tocantins, 1989 (amended through 2021);
  • Municipal Law of Fortaleza, 2011 (amended through 2017);
  • Consolidated Municipal Law of Salvador, 2020;
  • Municipal Law of Rio de Janeiro, 1990 (amended through 2021);
  • Municipal Law of Belo Horizonte, 1990 (amended through 2016);
  • Municipal Law of Manaus, 1990 (amended through 2017);
  • Municipal law of São Paulo, 1990 (amended through 2017);
  • Elections Law, 1997 (amended through 2021);
  • Organic Law of the Federal District, 1993 (amended through 2020);
  • Electoral Code, 1965 (amended through 2021).
Constitutional provisions on local government

There are federal and state constitutional provisions that establish local government in Brazil. Municipal elections and competencies are outlined in Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of 1988 (amended through 2021). According to Article 165 of the Constitution of the State of Minas Gerais of 1989 (amended through 2012), “the Municipality, endowed with political, administrative, and financial autonomy, is organized and is governed by its Organic Law and other laws that it adopts, observing the principles of the of the Republic and those of this Constitution. The Municipality is responsible for managing the interests of the population located in a continuous area of State territory of varying length, delimited by law. All the power of the Municipality emanates from the people, who exercise it through representatives elected or directly, pursuant to its Organic Law and the Constitution of the Republic.”

Legislative provisions on local government

The National Congress and the state legislative assemblies are responsible for establishing the legal framework on local government. The key pieces of legislation that regulate local government are the municipal laws. According to Article 6 of the Consolidated Municipal Law of Salvador of 2020, “the principles that underlie the organization of the Municipality are: the full exercise of municipal autonomy, the cooperation articulated with the other levels of government, with other municipalities, and with regional entities that the Municipality integrates or will integrate, the exercise of sovereignty and popular participation in the municipal administration and in the control of its acts, the guarantee of fair and equal access for all citizens to public goods and services that ensure the essential conditions of dignified existence, the defense and preservation of the territory, natural resources, and the environment, the preservation of the values ​​and history of the population, based on the recognition and assimilation of ethnic, cultural, and religious plurality, peculiar to its formation, and the probity in administration.”

Sources:

1. UN Women: Data on share of women in local government as of 1 January 2023.

2. UN Women: Information on Head of State and Government as of 3 October 2023.

3. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU): Data on share of women in the single/lower chamber of parliament as of 1 January 2023.

4. IPU and UN Women: Data on share of women in ministerial positions as of 1 January 2023 (figures correspond to the Government appointed in January 2023 following elections held in 2022).

5. Information on local government organization as of 1 January 2022.