THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF INDEPENDENT CANDIDACY IN BRAZIL IN LIGHT OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

The study discussed here dealt with the constitutional legal possibility of independent candidacy in the Brazilian electoral process, based on the American Convention on Human Rights, as a possible alternative to boost the scope of Brazilian national politics, contradicting the current position of Brazilian electoral law, which does not allow such a condition for the registration of candidacies, whether for the Legislative or Executive branches. In this sense, the research established the following problem: is there compatibility between what is stated in the American Convention on Human Rights and the Brazilian Constitution regarding the possibility of independent candidacies in Brazilian elections? To this end, it defined as a general objective: to analyze the compatibility in the Brazilian electoral legal system around the issue of independent candidacy and, in a more detailed way, its specific objectives come to historically contextualize the conception of the electoral process in light of the dependence on party representation in Brazil, to discuss the doctrinal position on the subject and, finally, to identify the favorable points of independent candidacy that coexist in the Brazilian Constitution and the American Convention on Human Rights. To this end, the research methodology adopted was bibliographical and documentary research, of a qualitative nature, through the search for documents, books and studies already published in articles on the subject, with examples being the American Convention on Human Rights and the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian electoral legislation, in addition to scientific publications on the subject from the last ten years. The results showed that there is not necessarily a conflict between the Brazilian Federal Constitution and the American Convention regarding the legal possibility for Brazilian electoral law to admit independent candidacy as a way of running for elected public office, leaving it up to the institutional political will to opt for this route, moving beyond the party monopoly that exists in the country in the name of representative democracy.