With no local polling station or means of getting to one from their remote community, residents of the Tumucumaque Indigenous Park in northern Brazil weren’t able to vote in October’s general elections. That’s according to Mitore Tiriyo Kaxuyana, a leader of the Tiriyó and Kaxuyana Indigenous peoples who spoke to Mongabay.
On Oct. 22, just three days before the presidential runoff vote, a federal court ruled that Indigenous voters nationwide must be provided with transportation and language interpreters to facilitate their right to vote.
Elections officials in Amapá state, where the park is located, told Kaxuyana in a meeting on Oct. 19 that they weren’t even aware of the existence of the Tumucumaque Indigenous Park.
“I felt a bit sad. I told them we have difficulty voting in our territory,” Kaxuyana, the coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Women of the Tiriyó, Kaxuyana and Txikiyana Peoples (AMITIKATXI), told Mongabay by phone. “They were unaware of the existence of the Tiriyó and Kaxuyana people here in Amapá. We said that we existed.”
Mongabay reached out to the Amapá electoral court, the state judicial body that administers elections, for comment, but didn’t receive a response.
Without polling stations in the territory, Tumucumaque Indigenous Park residents must travel by plane to vote in Macapá, the state capital.
“The majority of people who live in the villages normally don’t vote,” Kaxuyana said.
There are 74 villages within the 3-million-hectare (7.6-million-acre) territory, home to roughly 2,800 Brazilian citizens. The territory straddles five municipalities across two states, but most public services for its inhabitants are concentrated in Macapá.
Kaxuyana said there have never been polling stations in the territory. The only residents who vote are those who happen to be in the city during elections, often for medical reasons, or public servants such as teachers or health workers who are there for other reasons, Kaxuyana added.
Of Brazil’s 839 Indigenous territories, only 232 — less than 30% — have polling stations, according to Sumaúma, an Amazon-based news website.
About 26% of Indigenous voters in Brazil didn’t vote in October, higher than the 20% average for all eligible Brazilian voters, according to a technical note by advisers at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples seen by Mongabay.
On Oct. 14, Brazil’s deputy electoral prosecutor-general told the Superior Electoral Court that Indigenous leaders in five states, including Amapá, had reported that voters missed the first round of the elections due to lack of transportation from their villages and Indigenous territories to polling stations.
Kaxuyana said she was barred from translating in the first round of voting for two of her relatives, who were in Macapá for medical treatment and voting for the first time.
“We cannot be prevented from voting, from exercising this right,” Kaxuyana said.
Banner image: A village in the Tumucumaque Indigenous Park. Image courtesy of Kamikia Kisedje, Nia Tero/Iepé Archive.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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