GEOGRAPHY OF THE VOTE AND METROPOLITAN COMMITMENT OF STATE DEPUTIES IN RIO GRANDE DO NORTE

Abstract

This article aims to map the votes of voters in the Natal Metropolitan Region (NMR) in the 2018 elections for the Legislative Assembly, analyzing the existence of "metropolitan deputies" whose votes are predominantly from municipalities belonging to the NMR. It further analyzes whether the legislators' activities are related to their electoral strongholds or if they propose amendments that reflect a more global vision for the region, as well as a commitment to an integrated development project for the metropolis. As methodological procedures, the research first adopted the spatial analysis of the votes of Rio Grande do Norte state deputies elected in 2018, using data made available by the Superior Electoral Court, in order to verify whether there is a concentration of votes in the metropolis. Metropolitan deputies are considered to be those who obtained 50% of their votes concentrated in the NMR. Subsequently, it was possible to analyze the legislative performance of these parliamentarians between 2019-2022, based on the mapping of the allocation of values corresponding to legislative amendments and in which area of public policy the amendments are most concentrated. The relevance of the research lies in providing elements to understand the region in its political aspects, as well as the nature of public policies that address the NMR from the perspective of the Geography of Voting, based on Ames (1995; 2001) and Carvalho (2003; 2009). In the end, the study confirms once again the absence of a metropolitan identity among the elected political actors and highlights the lack of regional amendments in favor of the metropolis.