Brazil to the polls

Brazil to the polls

Voters have the option of appointing their 39th chief executive in history or using their vote to appease another four years in Bolsonaro’s mandate, who is seeking re-election.

They are elected President and Vice President in the process; state and federal district governors and lieutenant governors; Senators, federal deputies and state deputies.

Over the months, Labor Party presidential candidate Lula and Liberal Party candidate Bolsonaro led voter preferences in that order, as reflected in nearly all polls of voting intentions.

The former union leader’s lead over the former soldier ranged from 3.7 to 16 points.

According to the latest Intelligence Research and Strategic Consulting Institute (IPEC) poll, released this Saturday, Lula appears with 51 percent of valid votes, down one point (52) from the September 27 poll.

Bolsonaro shows 37 percent preference (he had 34 in the previous poll); Former Minister Ciro Gomes of the Labor Democratic Party gets 5 percent (he had six) and Senator Simone Tebet (Brazilian Democratic Movement) comes in with 5 percent (same percentage in the previous poll).

Later, Senator Soraya Thronicke (Brazilian Union) qualifies with one percent (same precedent) and Felipe D’Avila (Partido Novo) shows one percent (similar to the previous poll).

Whether there will be a second round, scheduled for October 30, cannot be said, IPEC states.

coup threat

Despite the confidence of many that Lula could define his victory in this first round, Bolsonaro’s reaction in the event of failure is worrying, having recently warned that he would not accept the result if he didn’t win and would blame the loss on it . something abnormal”. Before the Superior Electoral Court occurred.

The former Bundeswehr captain also did not respond to the question from Congressman Thronicke in the last presidential debate on TV Globo whether he would stage a coup if he did not win the elections.

The former paratrooper dodged the question and blackmailed her into saying she was a parliamentarian to him.

In addition, although Bolsonaro seized power through electronic ballot boxes in 2018, he now doubts the reliability and security of this container, implemented since 1996, which according to the President can be the target of fraud.

Eleven presidential candidates will take part in the elections and according to national legislation, in order to be elected, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the votes, ie more than half of the valid votes (excluding blanks and zero votes).

If none of the applicants meet these criteria, a second round will take place, scheduled for October 30th.

The same criteria apply to elections for governors and municipalities with more than 200,000 residents.

As for legislative positions at the federal level, the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 27 benches, one for each entity of the federation, out of the 81 total seats that make up the Senate will be contested.

The federal, state and district deputies are also elected according to the so-called proportional representation system, i.e. the representatives of the parties or coalitions with the most votes according to the calculation of the party quotient.

The federal constitution stipulates that every literate citizen who was born or naturalized in the country between the ages of 18 and 70 is eligible to vote.

The referendum is voluntary for young people aged between 16 and 17, those over 70 and illiterates. This means that they can exercise their right but are not legally obliged to do so.

Persons whose place of residence is abroad can only vote in presidential elections.

Of the 4.4 million Brazilians living abroad, 697,844 are alone eligible to elect the country’s next president, according to the State Department.

For persons resident abroad, only one nomination for this position is possible. You can appoint the chief executive in embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions scattered across 159 cities in 97 countries.

Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is the city with the largest number of Brazilians entitled to vote, with 45.2,000 voters.

Voting takes place via the electronic ballot box system, which allows the results to be announced on the day of the day, a few hours after the voting tables have closed.

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