After Transparência Brasil and eight other organizations asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to resume disclosure of the CPF of candidates in the 2026 elections, the body removed the data from the list of documents considered confidential and not disclosed.

The change is included in the TSE’s draft on the registration of candidates for the 2026 elections, which was submitted for public consultation on 19 January in response to the organizations’ request. The draft will still be discussed at public hearings from Feb. 3 to 5 and then approved and published as a resolution.

In the letter sent on January 8, the organizations argued that the CPF is cadastral data that can be disclosed, according to the understanding of the Federal Revenue Service, the Federal Court of Auditors and the Office of the Comptroller General, among others. Within the federal executive branch, it is only partially disclosed.

For the entities, the publication of the CPF of candidates is essential in order to differentiate between homonyms and to cross-check candidate information with other databases. Hiding this data significantly hinders the work of civil society and the press, which has repeatedly identified distortions in assets and revealed “orange” candidacies, people convicted by the courts and electoral donations between candidates.

TB had already pointed this out in 2024, when the TSE began to hide CPFs on the DivulgaCandContas platform and open databases, including files from previous elections, by means of Resolution No. 23,729/2024. The agency’s argument at the time was compliance with the General Data Protection Law and that the data could be used for scams and other irregularities.

In August 2024, TB and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), representing the Forum for the Right of Access to Public Information, defended the publicization of the data in a hearing with Justice Cármen Lúcia, who presides over the court. The minister pledged to look internally for solutions to guarantee at least partial disclosure of the data, but it was concealed during the election.

Also signing the January 8 letter were the Mapinguari Human Rights Research and Intervention Group – Federal University of Rondônia, Abraji, Open Knowledge Brasil, Associação Fiquem Sabendo, Amazônia Real, Base dos Dados, Article 19 and Transparency International – Brazil.