Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will receive five minutes and 32 seconds of daily election advertising on radio and television for his presidential campaign.
The airtime allocation gives Lula at least one minute more than his primary opponent, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, who was assigned four minutes and 20 seconds. Campaign broadcasts for candidates seeking the Planalto Palace, the official executive office of the president in Brasilia, begin on Saturday, August 29, and run through October 1.
Airtime allocations were established by the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's highest election tribunal, using a party representation table. Total block programming is set at 12 minutes and 30 seconds per day, with broadcasts running between August 28 and October 1.
Lula secured the largest share of broadcast time due to the size of his electoral coalition, the Brasil da Esperanca Federation. The alliance brings together the Workers' Party, the Communist Party of Brazil, and the Green Party, while also drawing external support from the Brazilian Socialist Party, the Democratic Labour Party, and the PSOL-Rede Federation.
By contrast, Flavio Bolsonaro's Liberal Party failed to negotiate multi-party alliances that would increase its television and radio presence. Although the Liberal Party ranks as the second-largest group in the Chamber of Deputies with 98 elected federal deputies, the candidate and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro remains limited to four minutes and 20 seconds.
Candidate Allocations and Party Seats
Social Democratic Party candidate Ronaldo Caiado received two minutes and two seconds of advertisement time. Caiado, a former governor of the central state of Goias, also enters the presidential race without support from outside political parties.
His Social Democratic Party holds 42 seats in the lower house of the National Congress. That total places the party behind only the candidate-less Uniao-Progressista Federation, the Workers' Party, and the Liberal Party. Meanwhile, candidate Augusto Cury's party, Avante, finished in fourth place among competing groups, granting him 35 seconds of radio and television airtime.
Broadcast Schedule and Daily Spots
On the first day of transmissions, campaign advertisements will air in an order determined by a draw conducted by electoral authorities. Avante will feature first, followed by the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, and Lula's coalition, Brasil Pronto pra Mais.
Beginning on the second day, rules set by the Superior Electoral Court mandate a daily rotation system. Under this arrangement, the political party or coalition that airs its program last on one day will open the broadcast schedule on the following day.
In addition to scheduled block programs, campaigns receive daily 30-second spot insertions across regular television and radio programming. A total of 980 individual spots will be broadcast throughout the official campaign period. Lula's coalition leads with 434 insertions, followed by the Liberal Party with 339, the Social Democratic Party with 160, and Avante with 47.
