Registration made by TRE identifies indigenous people in 111 municipalities in SP

Between November last year and March this year, 359 voters declared themselves indigenous in the state of São Paulo. According to the São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE), the body has been seeking to give more visibility and expand the participation of indigenous peoples in the electoral process through the Political-Electoral Inclusion Project. According to TRE-SP data released this week, the indigenous portion of the electorate is distributed across at least 111 municipalities in São Paulo. Most are concentrated in the capital, where 75 people declare themselves indigenous in the national register of voters. Next comes Baixada Santista, with 24 self-declared indigenous people in Mongaguá, 18 in Itanhaém, and 16 in Praia Grande. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) informed Agência Brasil that it is not possible to estimate the number of indigenous voters in the country, since self-declaration of ethnicity is not mandatory for registering as a voter. According to the Regional Electoral Court of São Paulo, self-declared indigenous people should correspond to only 0.001% of a total of 34.7 million voters in São Paulo. TRE’s expectation is that the number may grow in the coming months with the continuity of the Political-Electoral Inclusion Project, which has sought to map and promote access to voting for settlements, peoples and traditional communities in the state. Since the beginning of the project, in March of last year, ten villages have already been visited. Another four indigenous communities should be assisted by the end of this semester, estimated the TRE. According to the agency, it is not known for sure how many indigenous people currently live in the state of São Paulo. The last Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), published in 2010, indicated more than 40,000 in the state. Earlier this month, the IBGE released a preview of the 2022 Census, showing a preliminary number of 1,652,876 indigenous people across the country, however there is no breakdown by state. Detailed data should only be announced from May onwards. Since November last year, all people of indigenous origin have been able to update their records at the country’s electoral registries and enter information about their ethnicity. This information can be added in the field about race or color, where the voter can identify himself as white, black, brown, yellow or indigenous. Indigenous people can still register the people or group to which they belong as well as the language they speak. The indigenous self-declaration can be made at any time during the enlistment, review or transfer operations, either in person at the electoral registers or by completing the Net Title form, available on the court’s website.

Agência Brasil