The Window is Open: Why a Brazilian President is an Opponent of the Electronic Voting System? A Tale of Two Strangers Revealed by Datafolha
On the surface, things seem calm. An outsider would not think an election was happening when they walked through the streets. Looking out the window, I notice that the Brazilian flags — which have come to represent support for Mr. Bolsonaro — have been removed from the neighboring facades. It’s a sign that it’s a pre-emptive response or calm before the storm. There is not a lot of conversation regarding the election between friends and family.
Recent opinion polls have given da Silva a commanding lead — the last Datafolha survey published Saturday found a 50% to 36% advantage for da Silva among those who intended to vote. It interviewed 12,800 people, with a margin of error of two percentage points.
Climate and environmental worries also loom large. The Amazon rainforest has hit 15-year highs in the last 15 years under the far-right incumbent,Jair Bolsono, who wants to open it to mining, ranching and agriculture. The Amazon’s destruction — and its effects on the efforts to avert a climate crisis — has turned Brazil into a global pariah.
The election in Brazil is being seen as a litmus test for the future of Latin America’s fourth-largest democracy or a referendum on the current right-wing government.
Bolsonaro — an admirer of former President Donald Trump — has repeatedly made unfounded allegations about voter fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system. He once said “only God” would remove him from office.
A win by da Silva would be a huge political upset. The 76-year-old former metalworker led Brazil from 2003 to 2010. He expanded social welfare programs during the boom of commodity prices and economic growth. Leaving office, da Silva was widely regarded as one of the most popular politicians in the world. But in 2017, he was caught up in a sweeping corruption investigation, dubbed Operation Car Wash, that led to his imprisonment the following year. Da Silva spent a total of 590 days in prison, but he was released in 2019. His conviction was annulled.
Brazil has among the world’s highest confirmed coronavirus deaths per capita. It’s struggled to emerge from a global economic downturn caused by the Pandemic and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Economic problems, high inflation and discontent over inequality and corruption have led to a shift to the left in other countries in the region, including Chile and Colombia.
Both Bolsonaro and his conservative Liberal Party have claimed that Brazil’s electronic ballot system is susceptible to fraud – an entirely unfounded allegation that has drawn comparisons to the false election claims of former US President Donald Trump.
Polls will open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday Brasília time (7 a.m.-4 p.m. ET). Congressional and gubernatorial elections will also be taking place. The results could be released early in Braslia because of the fast voting system. If no one wins more than 50% of the vote, the two top candidates will go to a second round on Oct. 30.
Jose Lula da Silva and Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva during his 2018 campaign in Juiz de Fora
Both have been seen on the campaign trail flanked by security and police, even wearing bulletproof vests at times. Bolsonaro wore his as he kicked off his re-election bid last month in the city of Juiz de Fora, where he was stabbed in the stomach during his 2018 presidential campaign. Da Silva, who is commonly referred to as Lula, was seen also wearing a vest during an event in Rio de Janeiro, the same city where a homemade stink bomb was launched into a large crowd of his supporters back in July.
“I send my congratulations to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections,” US President Joe Biden said after Sunday’s vote.
During the campaign, Bolsoniero traveled to every state in Brazil according to his statements to reporters.
During his campaign, which began in February and is still ongoing, the 76-year old former President of Brazil has highlighted his past accomplishments and has focused on getting Bolson Parkinson out of office.
CNN spoke with a press officer for the Electoral Court who said that the results from the vote are already considered valid. He said a court session at a later point will confirm the win, but no date has been set for it.
On Saturday, he said he would win the first round of the presidential elections with a margin higher than 60%, even as he was 14 points behind in the most recent poll.
Critics said that the January 6, 2021 riot incited by Trump if he lost the vote was related to the talk of accepting the election result.
Last weekend, police registered two fatal incidents in states on opposite ends of the country. In the northeastern state of Ceara, a man was stabbed to death in a bar after identifying himself as a Lula supporter, according to police. Authorities in Santa Catarina state said that a man wearing a Bolsono t-shirt was fatally stabbed during a discussion with a man who witnesses said was a Workers’ Party supporter.
According to a survey, more than sixty six percent of Brazilian voters are scared of being attacked due to their political affiliations. And the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has issued a ban on firearms within 100 meters (330 feet) of any polling station on election day.
There are fewer undecided Brazilians in this year’s election compared to last year’s and that could result in more abstentions as a result of the fear factor among voters.
Agatha de Carvalho, 24, arrived at her local voting station to cast her ballot prior to work but found 100 other people already lined up. She said she would vote for da Silva, and called Bolsonaro “awful.”
When Eduardo da Silva was imprisoned and unemployed: defending his family values and protecting the nation’s social agenda in Brazil after the 2001 Brazilian pandemic
“A lot of people died because of him during the pandemic. If he hadn’t done some of the things he did, some of those deaths could have been avoided,” she said.
He has built a devoted base by defending family values, rejecting political correctness, and presenting himself as protecting the nation from socialist policies that harm personal liberties and cause economic turmoil.
33 million Brazilians are going to go hungry despite higher welfare payments because of a slow economic recovery. Like several of its Latin American neighbors coping with high inflation and a vast number of people excluded from formal employment, Brazil is considering a shift to the political left.
The left-leaning leaders in the region who recently took power are: Gabriel Boric, Pedro Castillo, and Gustavo Petro.
Da Silva could win in the first round, without need for a run-off on Oct. 30, if he gets more than 50% of valid votes, which exclude spoiled and blank ballots. Brazil has more than 150 million eligible voters, and they need to vote, but there are high abstention rates.
I didn’t vote for him again because of the scandals from his first administration. I will now because I am convinced he was wrongly jailed and that Bolsondler is a bad president that makes people look better.
Speaking after casting his ballot in São Bernardo do Campo, the manufacturing hub in Sao Paulo state where he was a union leader, da Silva recalled that four years ago he was imprisoned and unable to vote.
The Bolsonaro family grew up in a lower-middle-class area. He became involved in politics after being forced from the military for pushing for an increase in pay. He expressed nostalgia for the country’s two-decade military dictatorship while he was a fringe lawmaker.
Traditionally, the armed forces’ involvement in elections has been limited to carrying voting machines to isolated communities and beefing up security in violent regions. But this year, Bolsonaro suggested the military should conduct a parallel count of the ballots.
While that didn’t materialize, the Defense Ministry said it will cross check results in over 380 polling stations across Brazil. It is possible for anyone to consult a vote tally at each station after ballot closing and online.
After the election, Jair Bolsonaro made his first statement, but he didn’t concede the election because he didn’t like the outcome.
The voting on Sunday was peaceful, even though Brazil’s democracy seemed to be hanging in the balance during the campaign. Bolsonaro was the only candidate in the election who did not think the election was legitimate, as his opinion poll numbers began to flag.
Julia Sottili, who worked at the museum, said that she voted for da Silva because of his authoritarian tendencies. “Lula wants to improve people’s lives and end hunger. He is very concerned with human rights.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: The man who lost his life and his campaign for Brazil’s 2022 presidential election gets his congratulations
He became ensnared in a wide-ranging corruption scandal, which landed him in prison for more than a year. His political career seemed over. He was freed on a technicality in 2019: he was released for the sixth time and began his campaign for the presidency.
The president’s erratic behavior and policy decisions cost him his support and the second-place finish on Sunday was a sobering result.
More than a day after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was pronounced the winner of Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has yet to publicly acknowledge his loss.
On election night, President-elect da Silva said to supporters in São Paulo, “Anywhere else in the world, the president who lost would have called me by now and conceded.”
The Supreme Electoral Court in Brazil officially validates election results and relays them to the Senate, Chamber of deputies and State Assemblies.
The Electoral Court President called both of them to inform them of the results and wish them well in office.
De Moraes also said he did not see much room for the election to be contested. “The result has been proclaimed, accepted and those who were elected will take office on January 1,” he said in the release.
The head of the Senate in Brazil has already publicly praised the man and his supporters.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin sent congratulations in a message reported by Russian state news agency TASS, adding: “The vote’s results confirm your high political authority.”
On the Boundary of Bolsonaro’s Resignation to the Electoral Court: a Case Study in Sao Paulo
The President-elect’s diplomatic work is already underway, with Lula da Silva meeting Argentine President Alberto Fernandez – one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate him – in Sao Paulo on Monday.
At the start of the Brazilian Republic in the 19th century, an army marshall didn’t attend the inauguration of his successor.
And almost a century later, the last of the unelected military presidents, João Batista Figueiredo, snubbed the inauguration of his successor José Sarney.
In both cases, the boycott was largely symbolic. The same would be true if Bolsonaro were to refuse to concede the presidency in a public statement, according to legal expert Augusto de Arruda Botelho.
He told CNN that not acknowledging the result is a non-starter, since it’s the Electoral Court that gives power to the winning candidate.
Nevertheless, since Sunday evening, pro-Bolsonaro truck drivers and other supporters have been blocking roads and highways, causing major delays and disruption in at least 19 states across the country, according to affiliate CNN Brasil.
São Paulo International Airport informed passengers to check the status of their fights in a tweet noting that access to airport terminals may be difficult due to the protest. A number of flights have been delayed, according to an airline agent who spoke to CNN. Airline pilots and crew have not been able to make it to the airport because the blockade is causing significant delays at the airport, the agent told CNN.
Police officers on the road leading to the airport told CNN they were trying to avoid a confrontation and were afraid of upsetting the protesters.
Luis Valejo’s protests against the Bolsonaro-Valejo regime have been condemned by the Brazilian National Transport Confederation
Luis Valejo said that his Bolsonaro support was against that, as they have a President that won at the ballot box and they cheated the ballot boxes and put the other candidate ahead.
In the first comments by any member of Bolsontor’s inner circle since his election defeat, the senator’s son asked his supporters to not give up.
The order came after Brazil’s National Transport Confederation (CNT) said the roadblocks caused “inconvenience and damage to the whole society,” and said the protests should be categorized as “anti-democratic” and potential violations of the democratic rule of law.
“As president and as a citizen I will continue to follow all the commandments of our constitution,” Bolsonaro said in a news conference in Brasília on Tuesday.
After the brief statement, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, told reporters that the incumbent president authorized him to “begin the transition process.”
Bolsonriot said the protests were a “popular movement” because of the injustice that happened over the election. He said that demonstrators should refrain from destroying property or interfering with the right to go.