Overview
- The Tribunal Superior Eleitoral published Portaria nº 444/2026 and made state and municipal tables public, putting numeric ceilings on hired or outsourced personnel for street militancy and mobilization in the 2026 campaign cycle.
- The hiring ceiling is calculated by municipality: up to 1% of electors in places with 30,000 or fewer voters, and a base of 300 plus one extra hire per 1,000 electors above 30,000 for larger cities; for state and federal contests limits are scaled from the largest local electorate and the Distrito Federal uses Ceilândia for proportional seats.
- Limits apply to both first and second rounds and are global per chapa, so the candidate, vice and any suplentes count together while a party’s cap equals the sum of limits for each office where it runs.
- The portaria excludes unpaid volunteers, staff hired only for internal administrative support, party-accredited poll agents and delegates, and lawyers from the headcount to preserve normal campaign operations.
- It also caps mobilization spending with food limited to 10% of personnel costs and vehicle rental to 20% of total campaign expenses, and warns that deliberate breaches can trigger criminal charges under article 299, investigations for abuse of economic power, and possible loss of registration or diploma.