Mind-blowing numbers. In the middle of the motorcycle taxis that border Rocinha, the largest favela in South America, float a few dozen flags stamped 22, 55, 10… and other extended numbers, just as many mnemonic means to encourage voters in the neighborhood to vote on Sunday October 4 for their future local and federal deputies, senators, governors and President of the Republic. Because in Brazil, you don’t slip a ballot into an envelope: you type a number on an electronic ballot box.
Among the motorcycle taxis in Rocinha, the electoral campaign is in full swing. © Alienor de Matos, France 24
In Rocinha, a song to remember your number
Some people compete with their imagination so that, on voting day, no one makes a mistake. Like Jaque Joy, self-proclaimed “queen of the favelas”, who created with one of the oldest MCs in the favela a heady music to the glory of her name and her journey: “Jaque Joy comes from here, it’s for her that you are going to vote.” Surrounded by Rodrigo, Bruno and Maria, the young retiree from the public service distributes as many stickers with her name as hugs on this sunny country Saturday. “I was born, I grew up and I still live in the district of Roupa Suja (“dirty clothes”, in Portuguese), a few meters from here, I am the candidate of the favela, we must vote for our fellow human beings!”, she orders the people she meets. It’s impossible not to hear the speaker following her and screaming “40555”, her number.
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This is his first campaign. With her program in mind, she above all mobilizes her voters against “profiteering” candidates, elected officials who take advantage of this electoral reserve then abandon the favela until the eve of the elections. “This year I’m a candidate because every four years, we have people who come to campaign here and who leave once the election is over without doing anything for the favela. They come simply because the favela is a sort of electoral cattle reserve for them, it’s horrible to say, but it’s true: we are voting cattle.”
Jaque Joy, “cria da favela”, is leading his first campaign in the Rocinha favela, the largest in Latin America. © Alienor de Matos, France 24
In Maré, security and public services weigh on the vote
Over the years, Rio’s favelas have become an increasingly important voting reserve. Over the past four decades, their size has tripled; they now represent almost 2.1 million inhabitants. These neighborhoods alone, which often feel neglected by public authorities, can swing local and even national elections.
The electorate, however, is far from homogeneous. In the northern area of Rio de Janeiro, in the Maré favela complex, the community organization Redes da Maré launched in 2022 the project “How does Maré vote?” By combining field interviews with statistics from the Rio de Janeiro electoral court, the researchers are trying to understand the intentions of the 60,292 voters spread across the 15 favelas that form the complex, and who do not all have the same problems depending on their location: no public transport, dilapidated roads, non-existent sewerage, abandoned schools, entire neighborhoods controlled by gangs… The list of demands is long.
Coincidence of the calendar or not, last March, Maré experienced its very first sanitation project… even though the favela was created in the 1950s. Financed to the tune of 120 million reais by the concessionaire Aguas do Rio, it must last two years and prevent 1.3 billion liters from flowing each month into Guanabara Bay, which borders the Complexo da Maré.
A state with absent subscribers which often leaves room for gangs and militia. The police often only appear at the entrance to alleys barricaded by traffickers or during violent operations denounced by the population. The Redes da Maré association thus links these very different experiences of the state to perceptions of security and electoral geographies.
“Certain favelas regularly experience heavy-handed police intervention and suffer from it, some residents will therefore prefer to vote for candidates who reject this model of repression by force,” specifies Lidiane Malanquini, coordinator of the Political Incidence pole of Redes da Maré. In the most affected area of the complex, where the Nova Holanda favela is located, 82% of residents oppose police operations. In 2022, Marcelo Freixo (Brazilian Socialist Party, PSB) beat Claudio Castro (Liberal Party, PL), both candidates for governor (55% against 41% in Nova Holanda).
Is the favela still left-wing?
In Maré, Lula won all the polling stations in 2022 (with 55% of the votes, compared to 38% for Jair Bolsonaro). Historically, the favela is more inclined to vote left. For Lidiane Malanquini, it is still synonymous with the welfare state today: “When we analyze the data from the polling stations in the Nova Holanda favela for example, there is a massive vote for Lula. It is a vote in favor of progressive public policies for a poorer population.”
For example, the Bolsa Familia (“family grant”, in Portuguese), a social allowance of around one hundred euros created in 2003 under the Lula government, is paid to the poorest families on the condition that the children are in school and medically monitored. In 2026, 19.3 million families will experience it in the country, 425,000 in the city of Rio. The public health system (SUS), free of charge, provides basic care, emergencies and vaccinations: the Maré complex alone has seven family clinics. For Tatiana Lima, journalist for RioOnWatch, a favela media, these national health policies for early childhood have weakened during the four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate, pushing residents to vote for Lula in 2022.
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But she warns: “Being from the favela does not necessarily mean voting for Lula. In 2018, the electoral areas around the Complexo do Alemao favela had mainly voted for Jair Bolsonaro. It is in particular fatigue in the face of violence that can lead one to believe that radical security measures will solve the problem.” Since 2024, the polling stations of more than half of Maré’s voters have been moved for security reasons. This is one of the main concerns of favela residents, making them a prime campaigning ground for the right and the far right.
It is precisely on this point that Rafael Satiê positions himself. Liberal Party candidate for federal deputy and fervent supporter of Jair Bolsonaro, he is from the Jacarezinho favela, in the north of Rio de Janeiro. He uses his personal story to challenge the “romanticization of the favela by the left” which he explains in particular in his book “O Minimo Sobre a Favela”, published in March.
In a YouTube video published on the Jovem Pan channel, close to conservative circles, Rafael Satiê defended firm police action, criticized court decisions that limit operations in favelas and affirmed that favela residents support the presence of armed security forces.
But that’s not all. Rafael Satiê likes to recall that his life changed thanks to his conversion to the Gospel. At the launch of his campaign in 2026, he spoke of “the Christian who deserves to practice his faith in freedom”. Its site uses the motto “God, homeland, family and freedom”. His profile therefore has everything to appeal to the evangelical electorate. In the 2010 census, evangelicals represented up to 28% of the population in certain areas of Rio, and their weight has continued to grow since.
On Via Apia in Rocinha, Jaque Joy takes a short break, after nearly two hours of wandering the streets of her favela – a program she plans to repeat every day until the eve of the elections. A grueling campaign despite the financial support of his party, the PSB. Of the 1,944 candidates, only 50 like her come from the favelas.
