UPDATE FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Brazil’s top two presidential candidates will face one another in a runoff vote after neither got enough support to win outright on Oct. 2 in an election to choose if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office.
With 99.9 percent of the votes tallied, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had 48.4 percent support and President Jair Bolsonaro had 43.2 percent. The tightness of the result got here as a surprise, since pre-election polls had given Mr. da Silva a commanding lead.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly questioned the reliability of the country’s electronic machines, didn’t challenge Sunday night’s results. He has claimed to own evidence of electoral fraud, but never presented any, even after the electoral authority set a deadline to achieve this. Analysts fear he has laid the groundwork to reject results if he loses the runoff.
On Sept. 7, Brazil celebrated 200 years of independence from Portugal. As a substitute of holding the bicentennial events in Brasília, the nation’s capital, President Jair Bolsonaro transformed a patriotic military parade right into a campaign rally, summoning greater than 100,000 supporters and members of the federal government to Rio de Janeiro, his political base. It was an unseemly misuse of a national event, critics said, but not out of character for the Brazilian populist.
South America’s largest democracy will hold presidential elections on Oct. 2 with two iconic Latin American populists as competing candidates: Mr. Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served as president from 2003 until 2010.
Mr. Lula leads recent polls by a major margin, and Mr. Bolsonaro has already threatened not to acknowledge the election result—unless he is asserted the winner, after all. Many fear that the country could see anti-democratic demonstrations just like those experienced by america on Jan. 6 last yr throughout the attack on the capitol by supporters of the defeated presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
South America’s largest democracy will hold presidential elections with two iconic Latin American populists as competing candidates: Mr. Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
This yr’s campaign in Brazil has been one of the tense because the redemocratization of the country in 1985, when the military dictatorship ended. In July, a petition in defense of democracy received greater than half 1,000,000 signatures.
On Aug. 17, the inauguration of the president of the electoral court, which up to now has been a professional forma event, was attended by 2,000 guests and changed into a pro-democracy demonstration. Different civil authorities, similar to the attorney general and Supreme Court justices, used the ceremony to defend the present electoral model and the integrity of the electronic voting system.
A Trump-style social media campaign to undermine confidence within the electoral system conducted by Mr. Bolsonaro, his family and his supporters has prompted public figures and representatives from civil society institutions in Brazil to talk out in defense of the nation’s democratic institutions. Amongst those voices have been leaders of the Catholic Church.
The Brazilian bishops conference issued a “Message to the Brazilian people,” appealing for more “harmony among the many powers of the Republic” and respect for “the principles and values of the 1988 Structure.” After the closing of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops’ 59th general assembly in September, conference leaders wrote: “The logic of confrontation that threatens the democratic rule of law and its institutions transforms adversaries into enemies, dismantles achievements and consolidated rights, incites hatred in social media, deteriorates the social fabric, and diverts the main target from the basic challenges to be faced.”
In accordance with Brazil’s bishops, among the many “real challenges” facing Brazilian people today are the lingering economic and health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Greater than 685,000 Brazilians died throughout the pandemic while access to vaccines was discouraged or hindered by the federal government and by Mr. Bolsonaro personally. Poverty has been on the rise throughout the crisis, and greater than 33.1 million Brazilians—16 percent of all households—reside in hunger, a number 73 percent higher than two years ago, in response to the Brazilian Network for Research on Food Security.
A Trump-style campaign to undermine confidence within the electoral system has prompted public figures in Brazil to talk out in defense of the nation’s democratic institutions.
For months now, the far-right president has alternately escalated after which retreated from rhetorical attacks on the nation’s democratic institutions. Following Mr. Trump’s script in america, Mr. Bolsonaro, without offering any evidence, raised suspicions concerning the electronic ballot boxes which were in use in Brazil since 1996, voting technology praised by other electoral bodies all over the world.
Mr. Bolsonaro, in truth, had been elected to Congress and the presidency through the system he now insinuates is flawed. The president can also be in constant conflict with the Supreme Court. He denounced some justices as “scoundrels” and describes the court as an enemy to be defeated. He maintains close ties with the military—he has delivered 1000’s of presidency positions to former military officials—with the apparent expectation, in defiance of the structure, that officials loyal to him will oversee the electoral process.
Mr. Bolsonaro has also incited violence against the press. He has been especially hard on female journalists, often reacting to their questions with accusations about their marital life that reach generating engagement for him on social media. Episodes of politically motivated physical violence have occurred; a few of them, between Lula and Bolsonaro supporters, have resulted in fatalities.
The Brazilian bishops’s statement said, in an apparent reference to Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters, that despite “uncertainty and radicalism,” elections are at all times a “sign of hope.” They added: “Attempts to interrupt the institutional order, now openly propagated, seek to jeopardize the honesty of the electoral process and the irrevocable right to vote.
For months now, the far-right president has alternately escalated after which retreated from rhetorical attacks on the nation’s democratic institutions.
“Stirring up the political process, fomenting chaos and inspiring authoritarian actions are definitely not a project of interest to the Brazilian people,” the bishops said. “We reiterate our support for the institutions of the Republic, particularly public servants who’re dedicated to making sure the transparency and integrity of elections.”
Mr. Lula draws most of his support from Brazil’s center-left but retains some supporters amongst the novel left. He has needed to moderate his campaign agenda to appeal to a wider audience. To that end, he selected as his vp the previous governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, a medical doctor and lifelong member of Brazil’s center-right elite. Dr. Alckmin said he agreed to affix Mr. Lula, a political rival, to defend democracy from Mr. Bolsonaro’s authoritarianism.
Elected under the banner of the Staff’ Party, Mr. Lula’s two previous administrations were marked by the establishment of latest social assistance programs and robust economic growth but additionally featured quite a few cases of presidency corruption amongst political allies and inside state-owned businesses. Despite the corruption, he left office with high approval rankings and managed to anoint a successor from the Staff’ Party, Dilma Rousseff, who served from 2011 to 2016.
But the recognition of the party declined because the economy lost momentum under Ms. Rousseff, and in 2017, Mr. Lula was convicted on corruption charges. Imprisoned for nearly two years, he was blocked from running in 2018, when Mr. Bolsonaro was elected. His conviction was overturned in 2021 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the case against the previous president was adjudicated improperly by the trial judge, Sergio Moro. Mr. Moro later became a minister within the Bolsonaro government and succeeded on Oct. 2 in winning a seat within the Brazilian Senate.
Brazil’s bishops have encouraged voters to decide on candidates for Congress and the presidency who’re “committed to the integral defense of life, defending it in any respect stages, from conception to natural death.”
Each front-runners are self-professed Catholics, members of a church that also comprises a majority in Brazil. In accordance with current polls, about half of Brazil’s Catholics say they intend to vote for Mr. Lula, while most evangelical Protestants would really like to re-elect Mr. Bolsonaro. The campaign has pressed each candidate to appeal to the religious audience that has most supported his rival—Mr. Bolsonaro reaching out to Catholics and Mr. Lula attempting to attach with Brazil’s evangelicals. Mr. Lula has hosted events and meetings with evangelical groups, while Mr. Bolsonaro invited a Catholic priest and an evangelical pastor to affix him within the presidential delegation to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London.
Brazil’s bishops have encouraged voters to decide on candidates for Congress and the presidency who’re “committed to the integral defense of life, defending it in any respect stages, from conception to natural death,” a message that may apparently put many Catholics at odds with Mr. Lula. However the politically savvy candidate, who has been generally supportive of access to abortion and contraception, doesn’t highlight such neuralgic issues as central parts of his campaign platform.
Calling on Brazilians to vote with “consciousness and responsibility,” the bishops have lamented the style during which candidates have exploited religion. The theologian and educator David dos Santos, O.F.M., told America that while most members of the church in Brazil are aware of populist threats to democratic order, others have been deceived by the manipulation of non secular imagery and language throughout the campaign.
“On this political moment, the Catholic Church must be more discerning, prophetic and courageous,” he said. “The political, economic and social complexity of Brazil calls for a more authentic interpretation of Jesus’ example.”
Brother Dos Santos is the manager director of Educafro Brasil, a foundation promoting racial equality in higher education. He said two issues need to be taken more seriously in the present relations between the church and the political establishment in Brazil.
He’s nervous by the rapid spread of politically-hued “fake news” amongst church members, especially by and amongst young priests and seminarians—in his view, mostly Bolsonaro supporters. He also notes the growing influence of neo-Pentecostal evangelical churches in Congress as a cause for concern. Their growing presence, he said, is changing not only the character of Congress, but how religion is preached and practiced by evangelical churches. He added that this can also be a risk amongst politically and socially conservative factions throughout the Catholic Church in Brazil.
The answer, he said, is for Catholic voters to stay anchored within the Gospel. “We’ve got to have a look at the concrete lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth and help the people to open their eyes to the values of the Kingdom of God and never distort them,” he said. “A lot of evangelicals and Catholics have gotten aware of those errors and are changing their considering.”
Anxious by the anger and extremism stoked by Brazil’s political culture, Catholic lay organizations have been mobilizing to advertise solidarity and a more moderate civil society. Sônia Gomes de Oliveira, the president of the National Council of the Laity of Brazil, told America that each one baptized Christians in Brazil have to be authentic witnesses of their faith while energetic within the nation’s political life. She has been leading a project called “Encantar a Política” (“Enchanting Politics”), whose predominant objective is to get well the sense of a typical good in political culture.
“There was a mentality that every little thing that’s involved in politics is a foul thing and that every little thing we do within the name of the poor is leftist,” she said. Citing Pope Francis’ encyclical letter “Fratelli Tutti’,” she argued that Brazil needs a healthy political culture. “If we leave the dimension of politics out of our lives, we’ll open space for politicians without character to occupy. We’d like politics as a practice of excellent, not hate.”
As a substitute of promoting division in settings where there’s already lots of conflict, Catholics needs to be those “bringing love and enchantment to politics,” Ms. De Oliveira said. “The enchantment of politics goes through respect, citizenship and social justice,” she added.
This report was updated to reflect the election results on Oct. 3.
