As he takes to the UN stage next Tuesday to open the party’s General Assembly, Jair Bolsonaro will face leaders and institutions that demand only one thing from Brazilians: respect for the ballot boxes.
The warning comes from Kenneth Roth, an American, one of the world’s leading human rights activists and executive director of Human Rights Watch. Bolsonaro, as in previous years, will use the United Nations tribune to run his own election campaign.
Bolsonaro’s main message at the UN is just one: respect the election results,” he said. In his assessment, Brazilian “fantasies” are real risks to democracy.
In the past few weeks, NGOs have persuaded US congressmen and European officials to expand monitoring of elections in Brazil. These entities want the international community to recognize the results of the polls almost immediately, so as not to leave room for Bolsonaro to question the vote.
According to Roth, democracy in Brazil only survives thanks to national institutions that, he says, have managed to stop the president so far. “I was surprised at the power of institutions to resist Bolsonaro’s autocratic tendencies,” he said. “And those trends are drastic. I won’t underestimate them. But if you look at the role of the press, civil society, the courts and Congress, the reality is that they revolted against Bolsonaro and kept things from balancing for the worse.” said.
In the activist’s assessment, the Brazilian resistance illustrates the need for control and control of the Executive Power anywhere in the world. “This is why people like Viktor Orbán (Prime Minister of Hungary) are trying to undermine these controls in Hungary,” he said.
“But that didn’t work in Brazil. We have to accept it as a strength of Brazilian democracy,” he said.
But despite the resistance, Roth makes it clear that the scenario for the next few weeks is worrisome. “Bolsonaro is second in the opinion polls, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is first. If the polls are right, Bolsonaro will lose. But he’s acting like Donald Trump,” he warned.
“For months he has been attacking the integrity of the electoral system by saying it cannot be trusted and is building the foundations to bypass democracy and ignore election results. This is very dangerous,” he said.
“I hope Brazilian institutions can resist it. Just like American institutions. But it’s a very serious threat, just as Trump continues to be a threat to democracy,” added Roth.
source: Noticias
