BRASIL (Reuters) – Brazil is expected to hold free and fair elections in October, despite President Jair Bolsonaro’s speeches, said Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, who was nominated for ambassador to the United States by President Joe Biden’s government on Wednesday. US Senate highlights Brazil’s “institutional base”.
The diplomat stated that he has been following the electoral processes for 30 years and is aware that the election in Brazil will not be easy, but he advocates the smooth functioning of the country’s democratic institutions.
“Brazil is a democracy, it has democratic institutions, it has a democratic electoral system, it has an independent judiciary and legislature, it has freedom of expression and assembly. It has all the democratic institutions they need for a free and fair election.” I said.
“I know it will not be an easy time because of many of the (Bolsonaro) comments. Despite all these comments, there is a real institutional basis and I think what we will continue to do is to show our confidence and our expectation that there will be free and fair elections. We do that at all levels,” he said.
Biden’s relationship with Bolsonaro, representatives of the two largest democracies in the Americas, has been distant since Democrat took office as president. Biden and representatives of the US government have already criticized the management of environmental problems in Brazil.
In early May, Reuters revealed that the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) told senior officials in Brazil last year that Bolsonaro should stop questioning the country’s electoral system before the October elections.
The US embassy in Brazil has been vacant since mid-2021 following the retirement of Ambassador Todd Chapman and is temporarily run by Douglas Koneff.
source: Noticias
