Towels with the images of Jair Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva, in a stall in Rio de Janeiro. The election campaign starts this Tuesday. Photo: AP
Brazil enters the election campaign on Tuesday with far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and former center-left president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as protagonists of the most polarized presidential dispute of recent decades.
On the first day of the authorization campaign for the October 2 election, both candidates were preparing symbolic acts.
President Bolsonaro, 67, has scheduled a meeting with supporters from the same corner where he was stabbed in the 2018 campaign, in Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais (south-east): “The city where I was reborn” , said he summoned his followers to the act, under the motto “God, country, family and freedom”.
Former President Lula, 76, leader of the polls, will visit an automobile factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo, the Sao Paulo metropolitan region where he was forged as a union leader in the 1970s, a role that marked the beginning of the his political life.
“Lula always tries to return to Sao Bernardo do Campo at key moments in his political career because he favors his narrative as a worker representative,” Adriano Laureno, a political analyst at the consulting firm Prospectiva, told AFP.
Former president Lula da Silva continues to lead the polls, but Jair Bolsonaro closes the gap. Photo: AFP
While Bolsonaro “tried to construct a story that he is the ‘divine chosen’, and surviving the stab wound plays a central role,” he added of the president, preferred by the evangelical college.
Suspicion on electronic voting
The pre-campaign was characterized by Bolsonaro’s constant interrogation, without evidence, of the reliability of the electronic voting system in Brazil.
His criticisms have even sparked he fears he will not recognize a possible defeat and try to emulate former US President Donald Trump, accused of inciting protests that ended with the violent invasion of the Capitol in Washington in 2021.
Bolsonaro “is trying to weaken the electoral system,” the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday.
“All candidates should reject baseless allegations of fraud and respect the decision of the voters, whoever wins,” added HRW.
Jair Bolsonaro will return this Tuesday to Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, where he was stabbed during the 2018 campaign. Photo: REUTERS
enhanced security
To avoid new incidents such as the attack on Bolsonaro in 2018, the security of both candidates has been strengthened.
Lula, who regained her political rights in 2021 following the overturning of her judicial convictions in the mega anti-corruption case “Lava Jato”, continues to lead the polls, although the far right seems to be closing the gap.
On Monday, consulting firm IPEC indicated that Lula collects 44% of voting intentions, compared to Bolsonaro’s 32%, according to its latest poll, commissioned by TV Globo.
In a distant third place appears the center-left Ciro Gomes.
Last month, the Datafolha Institute placed Lula at 47% and Bolsonaro at 29%. He will publish his new results on Thursday.
a divided country
“These are the presidential elections most polarized by redemocratization (1985). It is the first time that we will have an inheritance dispute between a president and a former president,” Laureno emphasizes.
These are two “well-known candidates, with high voting intentions and loyal followers, which makes it difficult for any alternative candidate to emerge,” he adds.
Thousands of people took to the streets last Thursday in various Brazilian cities in defense of democracy. Photo: AFP
Bolsonaro defined the campaign as a battle between “good and evil”and warns that Lula’s return to power could mean the establishment of “communism” in Brazil.
Lula promises to restore the social achievements for the most vulnerable classes that have characterized his government, while harshly attacking Bolsonaro, Calling it “genocidal” for the 680,000 dead in Brazil during the pandemic.
inflation and unemployment
The main concern of Brazilians, according to polls, is the economic situation, marked in recent years by high levels of unemployment and double-digit inflation that have undermined Bolsonaro’s popularity.
The trend, however, is for the president to improve his numbers with recent fuel cuts – and unprecedented deflation over the past month, with a 0.68% drop in the consumer price index -, the increase in social benefits and the largest appearance of first lady Michelle Bolsonaro in the campaign. The big unknown for analysts is whether it will arrive in time to reverse the numbers.
In addition to the explicit request to vote in public documents, from this Tuesday electoral propaganda is allowed on the internet, where Bolsonaro has above all millions of followers through social networks.
More than 156 million Brazilians are called to vote on 2 October, the first round of elections in which the positions of deputies, senators and governors of the country’s 26 states are also contested.
If none of the 12 candidates in the ballot reaches 50% of the votes, there will be a second round on October 30th.
Source: AFP
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Source: Clarin
