Indigenous communities in Brazil’s Amazon region face significant challenges in accessing polling stations ahead of Sunday’s election runoff, as transportation barriers may prevent many from voting. In Amazonas state, where residents will select both a governor and participate in the presidential runoff between incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, an application for transportation assistance on behalf of Indigenous voters was denied by the state electoral court on Tuesday.
The petition, submitted by Univaja—an organization representing Indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley, one of the Amazon’s most isolated areas—requested logistical support to help Indigenous voters reach polling sites. Many in the Javari Valley live several days by boat from the nearest voting centers, with some communities located as far as 556 miles away, requiring extended river journeys of three to five days. While Brazilian electoral law guarantees transportation for remote Indigenous populations, the judicial ruling cited short notice, geographic obstacles, and lowered river levels as reasons for not being able to fulfill the request in time.
“The region poses overwhelming logistical challenges that demand complex river transport during the dry season,” the judge noted. The decision highlighted that military aircraft are usually required to carry voting equipment and personnel due to access constraints, and that available resources were insufficient to organize Indigenous voter transportation on such short notice.
Eliesio Marubo, an Indigenous lawyer with Univaja, explained that the association typically collaborates with electoral authorities to arrange travel for voters from remote communities, but said there was no contact or support this year, contributing to a high abstention rate in the first-round election held earlier in October. The Amazonas Public Defender’s Office’s Indigenous rights unit has also filed petitions after receiving reports from Indigenous leaders about difficulties in reaching polls ahead of the runoff.
The runoff pits Lula against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who remains a far-right figure. Early polls suggest a close contest, with Bolsonaro leading in Amazonas’ capital, Manaus, while Lula maintains strong support across interior municipalities, including Indigenous areas like the Javari Valley. Deforestation rates—a critical issue in the Amazon—rose sharply under the Bolsonaro administration but recently hit a record low under Lula’s government.
Access to voting in the Javari Valley has historically been fraught with hardship. Until 2012, residents had to travel to the city of Atalaia do Norte to vote, enduring multi-day journeys by boat. That year, the distribution of gasoline by a political candidate to aid Indigenous voters in reaching the polls led to a humanitarian crisis when many were stranded without sufficient fuel to return, resulting in a rotavirus outbreak that killed five infants and hospitalized dozens. The introduction of local voting centers in 2014, largely credited to Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Pereira—who was killed during a 2022 mission in the Javari Valley alongside British journalist Dom Phillips—helped alleviate some access difficulties. Pereira also developed plans for transporting electronic voting equipment to these remote communities.
Requests for comment from the Amazonas electoral court, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court, and the Indigenous affairs agency were not returned.