Better Elections

For the Pact for Democracy, better elections are elections that are more fair, legitimate, participatory, pluralistic, and democratically protected. This means not only ensuring the technical functioning of the electoral process, but also strengthening the democratic conditions that make free, trustworthy, well-informed elections with broad public participation possible.

Based on this premise, the Pact developed the Eleições Melhores project, which seeks to strengthen coordinated civil society action throughout Brazil’s electoral cycle. The project brings together multiple civil society initiatives dedicated to protecting, improving, and enhancing the legitimacy of the electoral process within a shared democratic agenda, creating the conditions for different initiatives to work in a more strategic, complementary, and coordinated manner throughout the 2026 elections, thereby increasing their collective capacity to contribute to better elections in Brazil.

How It Works

Eleições Melhores is structured around five stages:

1. Mapping Electoral Initiatives

The project maps initiatives, campaigns, and actions developed by organizations with the objective of strengthening trust, representation, legitimacy, integrity, information, participation, and freedom within Brazil’s electoral process. This mapping seeks to identify areas of convergence, complementarities, gaps, and opportunities for cooperation among different civil society initiatives.

2. Coordinating Organizations Through Thematic Working Groups

Eleições Melhores is organized around thematic working groups collectively developed by the participating organizations within the Pact Network. Each working group brings together initiatives, discussions, and strategies related to key democratic challenges for strengthening democracy during the 2026 electoral cycle.

These working groups serve as permanent spaces for cooperation, enabling organizations to exchange experiences, develop shared political analyses, coordinate collective actions, and establish common democratic objectives. Participation is voluntary and collaborative, respecting the diversity of approaches, capacities, and priorities of the organizations involved.

3. Developing a Shared Agenda and Common Objectives

Based on the exchanges taking place within the thematic working groups, participating organizations collectively develop shared democratic objectives, strategic priorities, and opportunities for coordination among initiatives.

The goal is not to standardize organizational agendas, but rather to create strategic alignment that strengthens the collective impact of civil society’s work throughout the electoral cycle.

4. Collaborative Action and Dialogue Throughout the Electoral Period

Throughout the electoral process, the project works to strengthen permanent channels for dialogue, cooperation, and information sharing among participating organizations.

This includes joint coordination efforts, the exchange of political analyses, the development of coordinated responses to democratic challenges, and the strengthening of civil society’s collective capacity for action.

5. Collective Impact Assessment

Following the conclusion of the electoral cycle, the project promotes processes of systematization, collective evaluation, and institutional learning regarding the initiatives carried out.

The objective is to strengthen civil society’s institutional memory, assess impacts, document contributions, and produce references that can guide future democratic initiatives.