O uso da religião como instrumento de abuso de poder nas eleições: um estudo de campo da influência religiosa em um interior da baixada maranhense

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze how the abuse of power by religion can be a harmful practice for the democratic State, given that it is characterized as a harmful conduct capable of causing imbalance within the electoral process. For this purpose, it started with the figures of the 3 types of abuse already legislated in the national legal system, specifically with regard to electoral law, and an analysis was carried out regarding the conflict between the fundamental rights of religious freedom and freedom of expression, as a possible affront to the principle of secularism of the State. A methodology of a bibliographic / documentary nature was used, in addition to data collection, featuring an exploratory research carried out in the village of Fé em Deus in the municipality of Pinheiro / MA, in order to show that religion effectively has the power to directly influence the political choices of the faithful. In this way, the discourse used to coercively direct the will of the religious needs to be typified as one of the forms of abuse of electoral power and the electoral justice holds the power, to be exercised by the normative function, to edit the necessary resolution capable of curb the imbalance generated by the arbitrary exercise of faith within the electoral process.