Electoral afroconvenience in Brazil

notes about the suspicions of fraud in the 2022 racial declarations

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of afroconvenience from the perspective of the last election in Brazil (2022). Recently, Brazilians have received news that national parliaments became more diverse, especially regarding to racial issue among the candidates elected to the new legislature. The news, however, has been accompanied with a certain suspicion by members of the Brazilian black movement, who noted the increase in the number of candidates who changed their racial declaration in the first year of implementation of the affirmative policy to encourage black candidacies by political parties. The article presents, primarily, the context of the institution of affirmative actions for black people in the Brazilian elections and the official data of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (BSEC) regarding the alarming behavior of candidates who promoted the alteration of their racial declaration, being benefited by the affirmative policy. At the end, the article proposes reflections about the racial fraud prevention in these environments. The study argues that official data from the BSEC point towards the situation of suspicious racial fraud in the electoral dispute and announces the need of electoral institutions to implement anti-fraud controls to guarentee that affirmative policy is being something exclusive for the victims of racism in Brazil, who are socially perceived as black.