Brazil's Communists Win 11 Seats, Up 83%
BRASÍLIA — Brazil’s Communist Party (PCdoB) has elected 11 federal deputies in the October 4 election, increasing its delegation by 83% compared with 2022. The result gives the party five additional seats in the Chamber of Deputies and its largest newly elected federal caucus since at least 2014.
The PCdoB won six seats in 2022, nine in 2018 and ten in 2014. With 11 elected this year, the party has reversed a decade-long decline in its congressional election results. Seven of the 11 deputies elected in 2026 are women.
The gains stretch from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro to Santa Catarina, the northern states of Acre and Amapá, and the South. The lawmakers take office in February 2027.
A larger communist delegation across Brazil
Bahia elected three PCdoB representatives: veteran deputies Alice Portugal and Daniel Almeida, joined by state deputy Olívia Santana. Santana led the party’s Bahia candidates with 123,359 votes.
Rio de Janeiro elected two communists to the federal Chamber for the first time since 1994. Jandira Feghali secured another term, while Elias Jabbour, a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a scholar of China’s economic development, won his first federal mandate with 103,219 votes. Jabbour previously worked as an adviser to Dilma Rousseff at the BRICS New Development Bank.
In Santa Catarina, 31-year-old Giovana Mondardo won a federal seat with 114,792 votes. The university lecturer and Criciúma councilor campaigned on women’s rights, labor protections and opportunities for younger Brazilians in a state where the right has substantial support.
The remaining deputies are Perpétua Almeida of Acre, Professora Marcivânia of Amapá, Márcio Jerry of Maranhão, Gervásio Maia of Paraíba and Daiana Santos of Rio Grande do Sul. The new group comprises seven women and four men.
A gain for the PCdoB in a right-leaning Congress
PCdoB leader Nádia Campeão attributed the result to a strategy of concentrating resources on viable candidates and campaigning with a clear party identity. She celebrated moving from six to 11 seats even amid what she described as a far-right offensive.
The result is notable alongside broader gains for the right: the Liberal Party (PL) won 121 seats, according to the Chamber of Deputies. The PT–PCdoB–PV electoral federation won 88 seats combined, meaning the PCdoB’s 11 form part of that larger group rather than an additional separate bloc.
The PCdoB is aligned with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s coalition. Its expanded delegation will enter the next legislature amid debates over wages, working time, industrial development, public services and Brazil’s international economic partnerships. The size of its new bench provides more committee and legislative participation but remains a small share of the 513-seat Chamber.
The party’s 83% increase refers specifically to seats it won in the federal Chamber, not to its national vote share. Its 11 victories, confirmed in published election tallies, are an unusually strong parliamentary result for Brazil’s long-established communist party.
Lead image: PCdoB leader Nádia Campeão speaking at a party event in 2026. Photo: Divulgação / PCdoB, via Hora do Povo.
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