The forecasts came true and Brazil will go to a second round of general elections on October 30th, as none of the candidates for the presidency obtained more than 50% of the valid votes this Sunday.
By María Josefina Arce
The forecasts came true and Brazil will go to a second round of general elections on October 30th, as none of the candidates for the presidency obtained more than 50% of the valid votes this Sunday.
The contenders in the upcoming elections will be, as expected, the former president Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, from the Workers' Party, and the current president, the ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, from the Liberal Party.
As predicted by the polls, Lula Da Silva, who governed between 2003 and 2010, was the most voted this Sunday. With more than 48% of the votes, the former trade unionist took the lead, closely followed by Bolsonaro, who had a little more than 43%.
The large number of voters was one of the distinctive features of this day, which passed normally, after an electoral campaign marked by an increase in political violence, encouraged by Bolsonaro's aggressive speech.
According to the electoral authorities, 80% of Brazilians entitled to vote participated in the general elections, the most polarized in recent times in the South American giant.
This Sunday, the governors of the 26 states and the Federal District, the 513 members of the Chamber of Deputies, one third of the Senate and state legislators were also appointed.
On the 30th, Brazilians will return to the polls for the second round, in which the polls before that possibility give as favorite Lula Da Silva against Bolsonaro, who, however, obtained a greater support than what the polls predicted.
We cannot leave aside that little by little the current president was gaining ground in the polls, backed by the more than 40 million evangelicals who voted for him in the 2018 elections.
Analysts believe, however, that the poor response of the government presided by Bolsonaro to COVID 19 should weigh in the next election. Let us remember that the current tenant of the Planalto Palace downplayed the importance of the virus, opposed the use of masks, questioned the social isolation to prevent the spread and delayed the vaccination.
As a result, Brazil became the country with the second highest number of deaths worldwide due to the disease caused by the new coronavirus, with nearly 700,000 fatalities.
On the social level, inequalities increased and Brazil returned to the UN hunger map, after eight years of not being on that list.
Bolsonaro's environmental policy, which led to a record amount of destruction of the Amazon, must also be weighed, due to his incentive to illegal mining and the activities of the timber and agricultural industries.
Brazilians will have the last word in a few weeks, when they will have to choose between two completely opposite proposals for the future of the country: that of Lula Da Silva in favor of progress for all, especially the poorest, and that of Bolsonaro in favor of privatizations and greater violence, with more weapons in the streets.
