Brazil elects Jair Bolsonaro as president

Update, October 3, 9:50 am: Because no candidate received 50 percent of the vote, Brazil’s elections are heading to a runoff. According to the Associated Press, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had 48.4 percent of the vote and President Jair Bolsonaro had 43.2 percent. Bolsonaro outperformed polls and will face off against da Silva in an October 30 election. The original story, first published October 1, is below.

The first round of Brazil’s presidential election is set to take place on Sunday, with current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and the center-left former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, or Lula as he’s commonly known, as the frontrunners of 11 candidates. The campaign has mimicked the 2020 US election in some crucial ways, with Bolsonaro claiming that the election is rigged and that the only way his opposition can keep him out of power is by stealing the election.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president, used his first week in office to issue a flurry of new policies and proposals that undermined the rights of indigenous people and the LGBTQ community, and offered a preview of his future far-right policies.

Bolsonaro assumed power on January 1, more than two months after his far-right campaign carried him to election victory. While on the campaign trail, the formerly fringe lawmaker promised to crack down on crime and corruption and to jump-start the economy.

Jair Bolsonaro campaigned for president on the slogan, “Brazil before everything, and God above all.”

Think of it as Brazil’s version of “America First.”

In advance of this Sunday’s second-round presidential election between far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro and center-left candidate Fernando Haddad, Brazilian media are reporting that Brazilian police have been staging raids, at times without warrants, in universities across the country this week. In these raids, police have been questioning professors and confiscating materials belonging to students and professors.

The raids are part a supposed attempt to stop illegal electoral advertising. Brazilian election law prohibits electoral publicity in public spaces. However, many of the confiscated materials do not mention candidates. Among such confiscated materials are a flag for the Universidade Federal Fluminense reading “UFF School of Law - Anti-Fascist” and flyers titled “Manifest in Defense of Democracy and Public Universities.”

Brazil elected far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro in its presidential runoff on Sunday, breaking a nearly two-decade-old tradition of almost exclusively electing leftist presidents.

Bolsonaro, a Congress member and ex-military officer, started off his campaign as a fringe candidate from a fringe party who was mostly known for his streak of racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBT remarks and for his professed fondness for the country’s brutal military dictatorship.

Centrist political leadership, which broadly governed world affairs for the last seven decades, is collapsing around the world — and potentially dangerous fringe movements are taking its place.

Two events within the last 24 hours underscore that trend. On Sunday, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro — a far-right firebrand who has expressed fondness for his country’s past military dictatorship — won Brazil’s presidential election. And on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced she would be resigning imminently as the head of her center-right party and stepping down from power completely in 2021. That coincides with the rise of anti-immigrant parties in her country and Europe more generally.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s next president, summed up his far-right campaign with the slogan “Brazil before everything, and God above all.”

Think of it as Brazil’s version of “America First.”

Far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro won a decisive victory on Sunday in Brazil’s presidential runoff election. His win represents a significant break in Brazilian politics, as voters abandoned the leftist party that had dominated past elections.

The 63-year-old former congress member won about 55 percent of the vote, handily defeating the leftist Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad, who was backed by popular former President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.

It wasn’t supposed to be a walkover, but it just about was one. Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate of the PSL (Social Liberal Party), fell just short of an outright majority in the first round of Brazil’s elections on October 7, winning 46 percent of all valid votes (that is, excluding spoiled and blank ballots). Fernando Haddad of the PT (Workers’ Party) also made October 28’s runoff, finishing a distant second with 29 percent. According to poll aggregator PollingData.com.br, Bolsonaro is a clear favorite, with a 98 percent chance of winning the second round and an advantage of between 6 and 14 percent in the polls.

Polls significantly undershot both Bolsonaro and Haddad’s numbers, with the biggest polling firms putting Bolsonaro around 40 to 41 percent and Haddad around 24 to 25 percent. I had warned before the election that one should take polling figures in Brazil with a grain of salt. So what went wrong? And could these problems happen in other places, too?

Brazil just held the most important election in its history on October 28. In the first round of voting earlier in the month, a field of 13 candidates was narrowed to two.

Fernando Haddad represented the leftist Workers’ Party that has been in power for much of the past two decades. He garnered just under 45% of the vote.

A viral (and false) meme shows a picture of Brazil’s left-leaning Workers’ Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, with a superimposed quote attributed to him: “When they turn five, children will become the property of the state. It’s up to us to decide if a boy will become a girl, and vice versa! It’s parents’ job to respectfully comply with our decision! We know what’s best for children!”

Meanwhile, a video viewed more than 4 million times since late September claims that the Workers’ Party was distributing baby bottles shaped like penises in daycare centers.

Brazil’s leading presidential candidate, a far-right politician named Jair Bolsonaro, was stabbed at a campaign rally last month in an attack that left him in serious condition. When the candidate returned home from the hospital last week, Brazilians staged large demonstrations both for and against his controversial, ultra-conservative agenda.

Throngs of his supporters filled the beachfront walkways of Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana neighborhood last Saturday. And about 24 hours later, a massive gay pride parade featuring no shortage of anti-Bolsonaro signs took over the same streets.