The Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) is entering the final stage of its campaign for Brazil’s 4 October 2026 general election with Edmilson Costa as its presidential candidate and Cleusa Santos as his running mate.
Brazilian Communist Party speeds up election campaign
The ticket was formally approved at the party’s National Electoral Convention on 1 August. The PCB presents the candidacy as an instrument for promoting the construction of “Popular Power” and socialism.
The party’s campaign is based on an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist programme registered with the electoral authorities. It calls for structural changes including public ownership of strategic sectors, reform of the tax system, a 30-hour working week without loss of pay, an end to the 6×1 working schedule, agrarian reform, expanded public health, education and transport, and the suspension and auditing of public debt. The PCB also calls for the abolition of the Senate and its replacement with a unicameral parliament, together with mechanisms of direct popular participation through popular councils.
In the final weeks of the campaign, the PCB has sought to connect the presidential candidacy with grassroots and working-class organisations. On 25 September, Edmilson Costa took part in a discussion in the Manoel Congo housing occupation in central Rio de Janeiro, organised by the National Movement for the Struggle for Housing (MNLM-RJ). Around 120 people participated in the discussion, which addressed a programme for the working class, housing and the organisation of popular movements.
Costa has also been maintaining a programme of meetings with workers and social organisations. On 25 September, his public campaign agenda included a discussion on the challenges facing the working class in Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro.
The PCB is using its election campaign to address specific social groups and issues as well as to present the broader programme. Recent party material has highlighted proposals concerning women workers, including the expansion of maternity and paternity leave, public childcare, abortion rights, popular restaurants and laundries, and measures against violence and discrimination. The party has also been campaigning under the slogan “PCB 21 with Edmilson Costa and Cleusa Santos.”
The party has established an organisational and financial framework for its candidates. Its June resolution on the electoral campaign fund established that at least 30% of the party's campaign resources would go to women candidates and at least 30% to Black candidates, with provisions concerning Indigenous candidates as well. The PCB also established priorities for distributing the remaining funds among presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial and legislative candidates.
Thus, in the final days before 4 October, the PCB is combining the presidential candidacy of Edmilson Costa with meetings in working-class communities, engagement with housing and popular movements, dissemination of its anti-capitalist programme and targeted campaigning around social and labour issues. The party explicitly treats the elections as a limited but important arena for advancing its political programme and building organisation around its longer-term objective of popular power and socialism.