Right-winger stands firm

– Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday he would stick to his hardline agenda on guns, crime and graft in the second round of the election on October 28, alarming senior statesmen and human rights advocates alike.

Bolsonaro, a former Army captain and veteran lawmaker, nearly won the presidency outright on Sunday, taking 46% of votes against leftist Fernando Haddad’s 29%, part of a swing to the right in Latin America’s largest nation.

As neither candidate won an outright majority, Bolsonaro will face Haddad, the former mayor of Sao Paulo representing the Workers Party (PT), in the second-round vote.

Some Bolsonaro supporters called on him to moderate his message to ensure victory, but the candidate said he would not ease up on an anti-establishment message that has resonated with voters. The world’s fifth-most populous country has been roiled by years of rising crime, recession and graft scandals.

“I can’t turn into a Little ‘Peace and Love’ Jair, which would be betraying who I am,” Bolsonaro said in a radio interview. “I have to keep being the same person.”

His words were a thinly veiled swipe at former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dropped his fiery leftist rhetoric to win the presidency in 2002.– Reuters

Rio de Janeiro