Indigenous community votes for the first time in the 2026 elections in Pará

In the 2026 elections in Pará, an indigenous community will vote for the first time this Sunday (4). A recently created polling station will allow 200 indigenous people in the Laranjal village, of the Arara people, in Altamira, southwest of Pará, to exercise their right to vote.

In the southwestern region of Pará, electronic voting machines were transported by land, river and air to serve urban, rural and indigenous areas. Throughout Pará, according to the Regional Electoral Court (TRE-PA), 7,786 land vehicles, 1,203 boats, seven planes and six helicopters were used to distribute the ballot boxes.

The polling station created in the Laranjal village was at the request of the community itself, which in previous elections needed to travel long distances to be able to vote.

To get the ballot boxes there, the Electoral Court team had to travel 150 kilometers by car and another hour by boat.

To take the ballot boxes to the riverside communities of Gabiroto and Manelito, located in the Xingu and Iriri Extractive Reserves, also in Altamira, a helicopter was used, as the boat trip would take more than two days.

Altamira is the largest city in the country in terms of territorial extension, with a total area of ​​159,533.328 km², larger than 10 Brazilian states.

In addition to voting locations in urban areas, the voting structure in Pará includes voting locations in areas with different characteristics:

There are 58 in indigenous villages,

95 in quilombos,

944 in riverside locations

and 2,480 in rural areas

More than 400 ballot boxes were distributed to the sections of the 18th Electoral Zone of Altamira, which also covers Vitória do Xingu and Brasil Novo, in the southwest of Pará. With the large territorial size, different logistics are necessary to speed up the sending of equipment to difficult-to-access locations.

The sending of 432 ballot boxes began on Friday (2) by land and river. The exit of the polls to schools in the city and rural areas was accompanied by employees of the Electoral Court.

Some ballot boxes that will be used in communities in Assurini, in the rural area on the other side of the Xingu River, were taken by car. The crossing to the region is done by ferry.

Two ballot boxes were also airlifted to the Kubenkakrê village, belonging to the Kayapó indigenous people.

A small plane also transported the ballot boxes and Electoral Court technicians to the towns of Cabocla and Canopus, on the border with São Félix do Xingu.

According to the Electoral Court, at this stage the work focused on land and river routes to ensure that the ballot boxes reached the voting locations in advance.

"Our main interest is to guarantee the right to vote. So that nothing gets in the way, we do this work in advance," said João Martins, one of the Electoral Justice employees involved in distributing the ballot boxes in southwestern Pará.