{"id":220652,"date":"2022-10-03T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=220652"},"modified":"2022-10-03T03:55:39","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T02:55:39","slug":"brazil-votes-in-tense-election-bolsonaro-vs-lula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/10\/brazil-votes-in-tense-election-bolsonaro-vs-lula\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Votes in Tense Election: Bolsonaro vs. Lula"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Oct 2022 – Divisive polls head into second round after far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro did better than polls had suggested.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

NPR<\/p><\/div>\n

Deeply divided Brazil will hold a deciding vote in four weeks\u2019 time after far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro performed more strongly than expected in Sunday\u2019s presidential poll.<\/p>\n

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With 97.3 percent of voting machines counted, left-wing challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had 47.9 percent of valid votes, compared with 43.7 percent for Bolsonaro, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) reported on its website.<\/p>\n

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The second-round vote will take place on October 30.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There were long queues at polling stations that closed at 5pm local time (20:00 GMT) on Sunday.<\/p>\n

About 156 million people were eligible to vote.<\/p>\n

Da Silva, popularly known as Lula, went into election day the frontrunner, with recent opinion polls giving him a commanding lead and even a first-round victory. The strength of Bolsonaro\u2019s support and the much tighter result dashed expectations of a quick resolution to the deep polarisation in the world\u2019s fourth-largest democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe clearly outperformed, and that\u2019s a big surprise, \u201d Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas told Al Jazeera. \u201cThe polls proved to be incorrect in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brazil's
Presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva votes at a polling station in S\u00e3o Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil [Mariana Greif\/Reuters]<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bolsonaro had questioned polls that showed him losing to Lula in the first round, saying they did not capture the enthusiasm he saw on the campaign trail. The former army captain had also attacked the integrity of Brazil\u2019s electronic voting system without evidence, and suggested he might not concede if he lost.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s vote, extending a tense and violent election by a further four weeks, is likely to give renewed momentum to Bolsonaro\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extreme right is very strong across Brazil,\u201d said Carlos Melo, a political scientist at the Insper business school in Sao Paulo. \u201cLula\u2019s second-round victory is now less likely. Bolsonaro will arrive with a lot of strength for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bolsonaro reinvigorated<\/h2>\n

In Brasilia, Ricardo Almeida, 45, voted wearing the yellow-and-green colours of Brazil\u2019s flag. \u201cI voted for [Bolsonaro] because of his Christian faith, his defence of family values, and his conservative politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Outside Bolsonaro\u2019s family home in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood, the scene of jubilant celebrations when Bolsonaro was first elected in 2018, the mood was increasingly upbeat.<\/p>\n

Maria Lourdes de Noronha, 63, said only fraud could prevent a Bolsonaro victory, adding that \u201cwe will not accept it\u201d if he loses. \u201cThe polls in our country, the media, and journalists, are liars, rascals, shameless,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Like several of its Latin American neighbours coping with high inflation and a vast number of people excluded from formal employment, Brazil is considering a shift to the political left.<\/p>\n

Presidents Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Gabriel Boric of Chile and Pedro Castillo of Peru are among the left-leaning leaders in the region who have recently assumed power.<\/p>\n

Lula, who is seeking a comeback after leading Brazil from 2003 to 2010, said he had been running for president \u201cto get the country back to normal\u201d after four years under Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

Speaking to a crowd of about 2,000 people after the results came in, he struck an upbeat note.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this whole campaign, I always thought we would win and we will win,\u201d the 76-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just a pause. Things are not good and we need to recover this country on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decked out in Lula stickers, Adriana Schneider was voting at a primary school in Rio de Janeiro. The university professor, 48, said Bolsonaro\u2019s administration had been \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for investment in culture, arts, science and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living under a barbaric government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J1ip-VtQ4JQ<\/p>\n

Lula rose from poverty to the presidency and is credited with building an extensive social welfare programme during his 2003-2010 tenure that helped lift tens of millions out of poverty.<\/p>\n

But he is also remembered for his administration\u2019s involvement in vast corruption scandals that entangled politicians and business executives.<\/p>\n

Lula\u2019s convictions for corruption and money laundering led to 19 months in prison that meant he could not run in the 2018 presidential race that polls indicated he led against Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court later annulled Lula\u2019s convictions on the grounds that the judge was biased and colluded with prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Voting in S\u00e3o Bernardo do Campo on Sunday, Lula acknowledged the dramatic turnaround in his fortunes after a conviction he said was politically motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important day for me,\u201d he said. \u201cFour years ago, I couldn\u2019t vote because I was the victim of a lie \u2026 I want to try to help my country to return to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"People
People stand in line to cast votes outside a polling station in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday [Lucas Landau\/Reuters]<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bolsonaro grew up in a family of modest means before joining the army. He eventually turned to politics after being forced out of the military for openly pushing to raise soldiers\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n

During his seven terms as a fringe legislator in the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil, he regularly expressed nostalgia for the country\u2019s two-decade military dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Promising to defend \u201cGod, country and family\u201d, the president retains the die-hard backing of his base \u2014 Evangelical Christians, security hardliners and the powerful agribusiness sector.<\/p>\n

However, the 67-year-old has lost moderate voters with his management of the weak economy, his vitriolic attacks on Congress, the courts and the press, a surge in destruction in the Amazon rainforest<\/a>, and his failure to contain the devastation of COVID-19, which killed more than 685,000 people in Brazil.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GBZGkPHVRkg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read More:<\/em><\/div>\n
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Brazil election: \u2018It\u2019s a question of national salvation\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/article>\n

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Brazil\u2019s election explained | Start Here<\/a><\/em><\/article>\n
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Brazil, it is time to wake up from your Bolsonaro nightmare<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/article>\n
Brazil election: Social media content crafted for disruption<\/a><\/em><\/article>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Go to Original – aljazeera.com<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Oct 2022 – Divisive polls head into second round after far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro did better than polls had suggested. The second-round vote will take place on October 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":220655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1176,547,239,392,541,1134],"class_list":["post-220652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-brics","tag-elections","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-lula-da-silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}