Experts advocate changes to include minorities in politics

Specialists who participated, this Friday (3), in the Elections, Democracy and Minority Groups seminar, defended more funding for candidacies of representatives of minorities to increase their inclusion in politics. The event was held at the Regional Electoral Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRE-RJ), in the center of the capital of Rio de Janeiro. Former Minister of Racial Equality and councilor in Rio Edson Santos highlighted the importance of the party fund and the electoral fund to increase the participation of minorities in spaces of power. “It is essential to ensure that a black elected candidate has a greater weight in the distribution of the party fund and the electoral fund, so that party organizations are encouraged to have blacks not only asking for votes for their white candidates, but to have blacks present in Congress National, in the legislative assemblies and in the municipal chambers. I think this measure may have a more direct effect on this challenge,” said Santos. State deputy Tia Ju, from the Republicans, recalled that only 15% of women occupy seats in the Chamber of Deputies and that the underrepresentation is even greater [no caso]of black and indigenous women. “We are 51% of the population and it is difficult for us to see ourselves represented in these spaces of power. The profile of the Brazilian politician is the white man with an average age of 48 years, and the profile of the electorate is the black woman of 35 years on average, ”she said. “Less than a third of party leadership positions are held by women. When we look at party executives, we rarely see women composing these spaces of power. That’s a big challenge. Political parties need to give more participation in their executives to women. And black women are underfunded. It is everyone’s job to make progress,” added the deputy. Professor of the Graduate Program in History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and babalawo Ivanir dos Santos also stressed that public funding does not benefit candidacies from minority groups. “The black population pays a lot of taxes, not just the white middle class. That’s what we’re talking about. It is not favor.”

Agência Brasil