Abstract
This paper analyzes reforms in election law introduced by the civil-military government instituted in Brazil following the 1964 coup-d’état. After a brief background on the issue, it focuses on the tenure of President Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco (April 1964 to March 1967), particularly on the modification of the ineligibilities legislation aimed at the state elections of 1965. The trajectory of Sebastião Paes de Almeida – an oppositionist representative who was prevented from running for the office of governor of Minas Gerais on the grounds of the newly enacted legislation – provides the opportunity to assess how democratic institutions worked and how political rights were interpreted under a dictatorial regime that paradoxically relied on elections as a legitimizing strategy.
Political rights; political disqualifications; state elections; Brazilian civil-military dictatorship; authoritarianism