The electoral college system was put in place so that the military elite that controlled the government could secure the election of the candidate chosen by the High Command of the Armed Forces as president.

However, in 1985, due to the process of negotiated transition to democracy that started in the late 1970s, the politicians in the electoral college were placed under no coercion, and were allowed to choose the president of their choice.

Under the 1967–1969 constitution enacted by the military, the electoral college was composed of all the members of the Brazilian bicameral National Congress (formed by Senators and Federal Deputies) and also of a number of State Deputies who were especially elected by their peers in the State Assemblies for the purpose of serving as delegates of those Assemblies in the electoral college.

After Maluf's nomination, many members left the Party and joined the Opposition MDB (including José Sarney, who went on to become Tancredo Neves's running mate in a political deal that secured for the Opposition the votes of the electoral college members who defected from the PDS and joined the MDB).

In 1984, the Diretas Já movement, that sought the immediate restoration of direct popular elections for the Presidency of the Republic, failed, since, in spite of strong popular support and rallies, the Opposition to the military government failed to secure the two-thirds supermajority of votes in Congress, that was required to amend the 1967 Constitution, as amended and republished in 1969.