PSOL elects fewer deputies and loses party fund

The election for the Chamber of Deputies in 2022 ended with frustration for the PSOL. Despite having important voters, the leftist acronym lost seats in the dispute for federal deputy and was without access to public money to maintain the party.

Names such as Erika Hilton (SP), Sâmia Bomfim (SP) and Jones Manoel (PE) garnered significant voting in their states. However, they failed to bring party colleagues to the House, as the other candidates did not have enough votes to reach the minimum level and get elected.

Barrier clause limits access to resources

With this, PSOL is one of the parties that has not reached the barrier clause. The barrier clause limits parties’ access to the Party Fund and free propaganda on TV and radio if the acronym fails to elect 13 deputies distributed across nine states or 2.5% of the votes for the House in nine states, with a minimum of 1.5% in each state.

Without reaching these criteria, the party loses access to the party fund – public money passed on to the parties to maintain them – and to the radio and TV time. It limits the existence and growth of the party.

PL shows opposite strategy

The performance of PSOL contrasts with that of PL. In Minas Gerais, for example, the expressive amount of votes of Nikolas Ferreira caused the party to win 21 seats in the state, leading the House to even candidates without expressive voting.

One of the deputies who concentrated the votes on São Paulo, Sâmia Bomfim (PSOL) says that it is difficult to draw up strategies to attract votes that are motivated by opinion more than by any other element. "It is very difficult to calculate how many votes a candidate will have when it is not an election by machine, territory or apparatus," she said.

Experts point to PL organization

For UnB political science professor Frederico Bertholini, the House result shows a better organization of the Partido Liberal for proportional elections. An example of these phenomena was the Federal District, in which PSOL deputy Fábio Felix was the most voted candidate for the House, but ran out of elected party colleagues.

In one of the videos of the district deputy, he asks supporters on the streets how many votes he needs to be elected. The answer of the then candidate is “more than 150,000”. He also comments that some people have nailed that he was with the right victory, but that nothing was won. “That’s why I can’t give up any votes,” he said.

Electoral quotient explains defeat

That number, however, concerns the number of votes the legend would need. This is called the electoral quotient. To reach the electoral quotient, the PSOL/Network Federation, of which the deputy is a part, would have to reach 207,382 votes – which is equivalent to all valid votes divided between the eight seats.

One of the alternatives pointed out by experts would be the federation of PSOL with allied parties, such as the PT. The alternative was rejected in March by the psolists on the grounds of maintaining the independence of the acronym.

Expanded Federation could help

Party federations shall join two or more acronyms for at least four years. By the rules, the subtitles start to act as one – which means that, in the calculations of resource distribution, the performances are summed up – both in elections and in the Congresso Nacional.

With fewer votes than PSOL, the Brazilian Federation of Hope (PT, PV and PCdoB) managed to place two candidacies in the Federal District because of the more balanced distribution of the number of votes. In the DF, the federation would make no difference in the number of elected. In São Paulo, on the other hand, it would help to pull two more applications.

Even without an expressive difference, the federation would help the PSOL to achieve the barrier clause, which establishes the election of deputies in at least nine units of the federation. Scenario in the DF: The expanded federation would add 476,592 votes. Thus, the party quotient would elect the same two deputies, Fábio Felix and Agnelo Queiroz. In the distribution of the leftovers, she would gain an average spot with Reginaldo Veras.

The result of the polls leaves the PSOL faced with a strategic dilemma: to maintain independence or to seek alliances to guarantee political survival and access to public resources.

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