São Paulo, Brazil
CNN
—
Polls opened in Brazil on Sunday in a presidential election marred by an unprecedented local weather of pressure and violence.
Whereas there are practically a dozen candidates on the poll, the race has been dominated by two frontrunners and polar opposites: right-wing incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, chief of the Staff’ Get together.
Each have been seen on the marketing campaign path flanked by safety and police, even carrying bulletproof vests at instances. Bolsonaro wore his as he kicked off his re-election bid final month within the metropolis of Juiz de Fora, the place he was stabbed within the abdomen throughout his 2018 presidential marketing campaign. Da Silva, who is often known as Lula, was seen additionally carrying a vest throughout an occasion in Rio de Janeiro, the identical metropolis the place a home made stink bomb was launched into a big crowd of his supporters again in July.
After voting alongside his spouse Rosangela da Silva at a Sao Paulo college on Sunday, Lula advised reporters: “We don’t need extra discord, we wish a rustic that lives in peace. That is crucial election. I’m actually joyful.”
He additionally referenced the 2018 elections, the place he had been unable to run – or vote – due to a corruption conviction, which was overturned final 12 months.
“4 years in the past I couldn’t vote as a result of I had been the sufferer of a lie on this nation. And 4 years later, I’m right here, voting with the popularity of my complete freedom and with the potential of being president of the republic of this nation once more, to attempt to make this nation return to normality,” Lula mentioned.
Bolsonaro, who voted at a army facility in Rio de Janeiro advised reporters that he had traveled to “virtually each state in Brazil” over the 45 days of campaigning.
“The expectation is of victory at present,” he mentioned, later including: “Clear elections, no drawback in any respect.”
Voting started at 8 a.m. in Brasilia (7 a.m. ET) and concludes at 5 p.m. native (4 p.m. ET). Greater than 156 million Brazilians are eligible to vote.
Within the Brazilian electoral system, a profitable candidate should achieve greater than 50% of the vote. If no candidate crosses that threshold, a second spherical of voting between the 2 frontrunners will happen on October 30.
Voters are additionally electing new state governors, senators, federal and state deputies for the nation’s 26 states and the federal district.
Bolsonaro, 67, is operating for re-election beneath the conservative Liberal Get together. He has campaigned to extend mining, privatize public corporations and generate extra sustainable vitality to carry down vitality costs. He has vowed to proceed paying a R$ 600 (roughly US$110) month-to-month profit often called Auxilio Brasil.
Also known as the “Trump of the Tropics,” Bolsonaro, who’s supported by vital evangelical leaders, is a extremely polarizing determine. His authorities is thought for its assist for ruthless exploitation of land within the Amazon, resulting in report deforestation figures. Environmentalists are warning that the way forward for the rainforest might be at stake on this election.
Bolsonaro has additionally been broadly criticized for his dealing with of the Covid-19 pandemic. Greater than 686,000 individuals in Brazil have died from the virus.
Lula, 76, who was president for 2 consecutive phrases, from 2003 to 2011, has centered his marketing campaign on getting Bolsonaro out of workplace and has highlighted his previous achievements all through his marketing campaign.
He left workplace with a 90% approval score in 2011, and is essentially credited for lifting thousands and thousands of Brazilians from excessive poverty by means of the “Bolsa Familia” welfare program.
His marketing campaign has promised a brand new tax regime that can enable for greater public spending. He has vowed to finish starvation within the nation, which has returned in the course of the Bolsonaro authorities. Lula additionally guarantees to work to cut back carbon emissions and deforestation within the Amazon.
Lula, nonetheless, can be no stranger to controversy. He was convicted for corruption and cash laundering in 2017, on fees stemming from the wide-ranging “Operation Automobile Wash” investigation into the state-run oil firm Petrobras. However after serving lower than two years, a Supreme Court docket Justice annulled Lula’s conviction in March 2021, clearing the best way for him to run for president for a sixth time.
Vote counting begins proper after ballots, that are largely digital, shut on Sunday.
Electoral authorities say they count on remaining outcomes from the primary spherical to be formally introduced Sunday night. In the previous few elections, outcomes had been formally declared two to 3 hours after voting completed.
Observers shall be watching carefully to see if all candidates publicly settle for the outcome.
Bolsonaro, who has been accused of firing up supporters with violent rhetoric, has sought to sow doubts in regards to the outcome and mentioned that the outcomes ought to be thought of suspicious if he doesn’t achieve “not less than 60%.”
On Saturday, he repeated claims that he’ll win within the first spherical of presidential elections “with a margin greater than 60%,” regardless of being 14 factors behind in the newest ballot that day.
When requested on Sunday if he’ll settle for the outcomes of the election, Bolsonaro mentioned, “If they’re clear elections, no drawback, might the most effective win.”
Each Bolsonaro and his conservative Liberal Get together have claimed that Brazil’s digital poll system is prone to fraud – a wholly unfounded allegation that has drawn comparisons to the false election claims of former US President Donald Trump.
There have been no confirmed cases of voter fraud within the digital poll in Brazil.
The Supreme Electoral Court docket has additionally rejected claims of flaws within the system, as “false and untruthful, with no base in actuality.”
Critics have warned that such discuss might result in outbreaks of violence and even refusal to just accept the election outcome amongst some Brazilians – pointing to the January 6, 2021, riot incited by Trump after he misplaced the vote.
There have already been a number of studies of political discourse turning violent from supporters throughout the political spectrum.
Final weekend, police registered two deadly incidents in states on reverse ends of the nation. Within the northeastern state of Ceara, a person was stabbed to loss of life in a bar after figuring out himself as a Lula supporter, in keeping with police. And authorities in southern Santa Catarina state say a person carrying a Bolsonaro T-shirt was additionally fatally stabbed throughout a violent dialogue with a person whom witnesses recognized as a Staff’ Get together supporter.
Police say they’re investigating each incidents, and that arrests have been made.
And in July, a member of Lula’s Employee’s Get together, who was celebrating his fiftieth birthday with a politically-themed occasion was shot lifeless.
Simply someday earlier than, two explosives had been thrown right into a crowd at a Lula rally.
In response to a Datafolha ballot performed in August, greater than 67% of voters in Brazil are afraid of being “bodily attacked” attributable to their political affiliations. And the nation’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has issued a ban on firearms inside 100 meters (330 ft) of any polling station on election day.
The concern issue amongst voters might result in a variety of abstentions on Sunday, nonetheless, latest polling reveals that there are fewer undecided Brazilians this 12 months than in earlier elections.