Why did the number of parties in the House decrease in the 2022 election?

Twenty-three parties won seats in the Chamber of Deputies for the next legislature, which will start on February 1, seven fewer than in the 2018 elections, when 30 parties elected representatives. The trend is that, very soon, the composition of Congress will decrease to 20 parties, since three mergers between parties are being finalized or are in an advanced stage of negotiation: Mais Brasil (merger of the PTB and Patriota), the incorporation of the PSC for Podemos and Pros for Solidarity.

What has motivated this movement of the parties is the instinct for survival. Two electoral rules, which were in force together for the first time in the 2022 elections, presented a challenging scenario for parties, especially for small ones: the end of coalitions for the election of deputies and the barrier clause.

The barrier clause is a mechanism created in 2017 via political reform with the aim of reducing party fragmentation in the country and concentrating the distribution of resources from party and electoral funds. To continue having access to these funds from 2023 onwards, parties needed to elect a minimum of 11 federal deputies distributed in at least nine states or obtain 2% of valid votes for the Chamber of Deputies in nine federal units. With the exception of Podemos, the parties that are negotiating mergers at the end of the year, mentioned above, did not reach the performance clause, as well as Novo, which elected only three deputies.

First national election without proportional coalitions

In addition to the barrier clause, since the 2020 elections, the electoral rules provide that party coalitions can only occur in the dispute for majority positions, such as mayors, governors, presidents and senators. In this way, the result of legislative disputes for proportional positions only counts the votes obtained by each party at the time of the distribution of seats in the Chamber, and no longer in the various subtitles that made up this group.

However, in order to minimize the impacts of the end of proportional coalitions, Congress approved in 2021 the institute of party federations, allowing parties to come together to contest proportional elections, but, at the same time, requiring them to unite for at least four years. In theory, these acronyms should act as a party and have ideological affinity. In 2022, three party federations were registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE): the Brazilian Federation of Hope (PT, PCdoB and PV), the PSDB-Cidadania Federation and the Psol-Rede Federation. Others are under discussion: between Progressistas and União Brasil; PDT and PSB; and the entry of Podemos into the PSDB-Citizenship Federation.

The professor of Constitutional Law and Electoral Law at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Eneida Desiree Salgado, assesses that this regulation harms the diversity of candidacies, but, in contrast, benefits the governability of the heads of the Executive.

“If we are going to think about the Brazilian electorate, a reduction as it is being designed for six, seven, eight parties is quite reductionist in the possibility of party organization and candidacy presentation. However, one of the great defenses to the party clause is the rationalization of the system. I see that there is a possibility, but we do not know exactly what effects this will have on political representation. For governance, everything indicates that there will be an improvement”, he analyzes.

In 2026, the barrier clause will be even more demanding. The minimum number of elected federal deputies will increase from 11 to 13 and valid votes for the Chamber of Deputies will rise from 2% to 2.5%. Parties (or federations) that do not meet this requirement will no longer receive resources from party and electoral funds, and will no longer have access to free radio and TV advertising, as well as the right to participate in electoral debates.

The professor also assesses that, even with the tendency of the constant decrease of political parties, party polarization is a pre-existing phenomenon of Brazilian politics and that it should not change with this new scenario.

“It is often said that the fewer parties are disputing, the more the possibility of polarization exists. But see that we had three dozen parties there in 2018 and we still had polarization. In the Brazilian context, it is difficult to have more polarization, considering that we can attribute this phenomenon to other factors, not to the number of parties or federations”, he concludes.