RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — More than 120 million Brazilians will vote Sunday in a highly polarized election that could decide whether the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or helps keep the far-right incumbent in power. Effective for another 4 years.
With polls opening at 8 a. m. Brasilia time, the race pits incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro against his political enemy, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There are nine other candidates, but they pale in comparison to those of Bolsonaro and da Silva.
Recent opinion ballots have given da Silva a wide advantage: Datafolha’s most recent ballot released Saturday found that 50 percent of respondents who intend to vote for a candidate said they would vote for da Silva, up from 36 percent for Bolsonaro. people, with a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.
Bolsonaro’s tenure has been marred by incendiary rhetoric, the testing of democratic institutions, widely criticized handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worst deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in 15 years. But he has built a committed foundation by upholding the classic values of the circle of relatives. , rejecting political correctness and presenting itself as the country’s protector of left-wing policies that undermine individual freedoms and produce economic turbulence.
A slow economic recovery has yet to reach the poor, with 33 million Brazilians suffering from hunger despite high social benefits. A political turn to the left.
Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Peru’s Pedro Castillo are the region’s leftist leaders who recently took power.
There is a possibility that da Silva will simply win in the first circular, without wanting a momentary circular on October 30. For this to happen, you would need more than 50% of valid votes, which excludes voided and blank votes. Brazil has more than 150 million eligible voters and voting is mandatory, however, abstention rates can reach 20%.
An outright victory would underscore the president’s reaction to the count given that he has questioned the reliability of not only opinion polls, but also electronic voting machines. Analysts worry it has laid the groundwork for rejecting the results. At one point, Bolsonaro claimed he has evidence of fraud, but never presented any, even after the electoral authority set a deadline to do so. On September 18, he said that if he doesn’t win in the first round, something has to be “abnormal. “
The two favorites have key support bases: evangelicals and whites for Bolsonaro, and wo, minorities and deficient for da Silva.
Da Silva, 76, will vote in the state of Sao Paulo, where he was once a metalworker and union leader. He went from poverty to the presidency and is credited with launching a sweeping social coverage program during his tenure from 2003 to 2010 that helped bring tens of millions of other people into the middle class.
But he is also remembered for his administration’s involvement in major corruption scandals involving politicians and executives.
Da Silva’s own convictions for corruption and money laundering landed him in 19 months in prison, he from the 2018 presidential race in which polls indicated he was leading the opposition to Bolsonaro. The Supreme Court then overturned da Silva’s convictions on the grounds that the sentence passed. partial and in collusion with prosecutors.
Bolsonaro, who will vote in Rio de Janeiro, grew up in a modest circle of relatives before joining the military. He eventually turned to politics after being forced to leave the army for brazenly pushing to raise army salaries. During his seven terms as a marginal deputy in the lower chamber of Congress, he has expressed nostalgia for the two decades of military dictatorship in the country.
His proposals for the armed forces have raised fears that his imaginable rejection of electoral effects could be backed by the most sensible bosses.
Traditionally, the military’s involvement in elections has been limited to transporting voting machines to remote communities and editing security in violent areas. But this year, Bolsonaro called for the army to conduct a parallel ballot count.
Although that did not materialize, the Defense Ministry said it would verify the effects on more than 380 polling stations across Brazil. Any citizen or entity can do the same, by consulting a vote count that will be held at each polling station after the close of voting and online.
Since voting takes place electronically, the initial effects are published within minutes and the final result is obtained hours later. This year, all polling stations will close at five o’clock in the afternoon. Brasilia time, regardless of slots in later time zones.
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