Entre atentados, ataques morais e disputas memoriais: um olhar político acerca do protagonismo feminino nas eleições de 1996 em Maceió

Abstract

This paper proposes to analyze the electoral process for the city hall of Maceió in the year of 1996, in which the second round was disputed between the candidates Kátia Born (PSB) and Heloísa Helena (PT). For that, we use the methodology based on analysis of party documents, materials from the respective campaigns, articles extracted from the media outlets that covered that process and oral history techniques, based on interviews with the main characters who played the leading role in the event. We assume that the events that occurred in Alagoas in 1996 are a chained derivation of a series of sociopolitical and economic transformations, which were taking place in Brazil, during the process of redemocratization. Based on that, we make an analysis of the redemocratization that occurred in Brazil, with emphasis on the study of the political openness focusing on points such as the "Lei da Anistia" (Amnesty Law), the multiparty system and the direct elections campaign. We evoke the concept of transitology, giving voice to authors such as Michelle Reis, Daniel Aarão Reis and Americo Oscar Freire. The main objective is to understand how such changes in the objective and subjective plane of the popular imaginary, made possible the arrival to the second round of two female candidates, affiliated to left-wing parties, in the state's capital, traditionally controlled by oligarchies linked to the sugar-alcohol sector and how those events that occurred in 1996, impacted qualitatively, contributing to the expansion of female participation in institutional political spheres, beyond the analysis of the national framework, we also focus on the framework of economic deterioration faced by the state in the 90s during the third government of Divaldo Suruagy, for that, we use contributions from authors such as Leda Maria de Almeida and Wibsson Ribeiro Lopes. In an effort to rescue the biographies and political trajectories of the main protagonists, we used interviews with characters who shared with both political militancy and their own electoral process in 1996.