Brazilian parliamentary election, 2010

← 2006

October 3, 2010

2014 →

All 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 54 out of 81 seats in the Federal Senate

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Fernando Ferro	Henrique Eduardo Alves	João Almeida dos Santos
Party	PT	PMDB	PSDB
Alliance	PBSM	PBSM	BPM
Last election	83 seats, 16.2%	89 seats, 17.3%	66 seats, 12.8%
Seats won	88	79	53
Seat change	+5	–10	–13
Popular vote	16,289,199	12,537,252	11,477,380
Percentage	16.9 %	13.0 %	11.9 %

The 2010 Brazilian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, October 3, as part of the country's general election. On that date, 54 of the 81 seats in the Federal Senate and all 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were up for election.

This election was marked by the advance of the Lulista bloc, gathered around the For Brazil to keep on changing coalition, in the National Congress. On the other hand, the centre-right opposition, gathered around the Brazil can do more coalition, lost seats in both houses.

According to the Constitution, each state is represented by three Senators elected by a majority of the votes. They are directly elected to an eight-year term, and there is no limit on the number of terms a Senator may serve. Alternating, one third and then two thirds of the seats are up for election every four years. In 2006, one third of the seats were up for election and thus in 2010 two thirds of the seats were up for election, corresponding to two of the Senators elected by each one of the 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District.

The Chamber of Deputies represent the people of each state, and its members are elected by a system of proportional representation, due to federalism being adopted as the form of government in the country. Federal deputies are elected for a four-year term, and there is no limit on the number of terms a deputy may serve.

In 2010, 22 of the country's 27 registered political parties were able to elect at least one representative in the Chamber, while 15 were able to elect at least one Senator.

As a result of the so-called "Red Wave", the Workers' Party (PT) became the largest party in the Chamber for the first time ever with 88 deputies, and elected Marco Maia as President of the lower house. Collectively, its coalition, For Brazil to keep on changing, elected 311 deputies. Four parties in the coalition lost seats; the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), Democratic Labour Party (PDT), and the Christian Labour Party (PTC). However, only the PTC failed to gain seats in either house. The Republic Party (RP) had the biggest gain, electing 16 deputies more than in 2006. In the Senate, the centre-left coalition was able to elect 39 seats, against 10 won by the opposition. PT reached an all-time high in the upper house, electing 12 Senators and becoming the second largest party in the Senate, behind only the PMDB. The other parties in the coalition did not have any significant gains, with the exception being the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), which was able to elect the first female Communist Senator in Brazilian history (Vanessa Grazziotin, from Amazonas).

...
Wikipedia