Brazil votes amid fury at its ruling class
BRAZILIANS went to the polls yesterday to choose a new leader in an election marked by intense anger at the ruling class following years of political and economic turmoil, including what may be the largest corruption scandal in Latin American history.
Many had thought that “throwthe-bums-out” rage would buoy the chances of an outsider and end the hegemony of the center-left Workers’ Party and the center-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party, which have for years battled it out for the presidency.
Like much in this election, it hasn’t turned out as predicted. The man who has benefited most from the anger is a 27-year veteran of Congress, Jair Bolsonaro, whose outsider status is based largely on hard-right positions that have alienated as many as they have attracted — nostalgia for a military dictatorship, insults to women and gay people and calls to fight crime by loosening controls on already deadly police forces.
In second place is former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party, which has won the last four presidential elections.
Bolsonaro garnered 36 percent in the latest Datafolha poll, with Haddad 14 points behind. The poll interviewed 19,552 people on Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. If no one wins a majority, a runoff will be held October 28.
“In general, these are the strangest elections I’ve ever seen,” said Monica de Bolle, director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s shaping up to be a contest between the two weakest candidates possible.”
The campaign to run Latin America’s largest economy — a major trade partner for countries in the region and a diplomatic heavyweight — has been unpredictable and tense. Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led initial polls by a wide margin, but was disqualified after a corruption conviction. Bolsonaro was stabbed at a rally in September and campaigned from a hospital bed. And, Brazilians say their faith in their leaders and their hopes for the future are waning.