Why did Brazilian President Luis Bolsonaro Lose his Seat in the Pre-Wolf Election? Comments on a Long Journey Through Brazil’s Amazonian Landscape

On the surface, things seem calm. If an outsider walking through the streets sees the election happening, they won’t believe it. Looking out the window, I notice that the Brazilian flags — which have come to represent support for Mr. Bolsonaro — have been removed from the neighboring facades. An ambiguous sign: It could be a pre-emptive response to defeat, or the calm before the storm. The election is not a topic of discussion among friends and family; the lines have not changed since then.

In the months prior to this, Mr. Bolsonaro claimed that the polls underestimating his support was due to his huge rallies. It was obvious that he was behind in virtually every poll. On Sunday, it was clear that he was right. He performed better in Brazil than the Ipec polling firm had predicted a day before the election, exceeding projections by at least 8 percentage points in 10 states.

Environmental and climate worries also loomed large. The Amazon has seen 15-year highs in deforestation, which was blamed on the rule of Mr. Bolsoniero who argued that the rainforest should be open to farming, mining and ranching. The Amazon and its effect on the climate crisis has made Brazil a global outcast.

Brazil has been struggling with high inflation, limited growth and rising poverty in recent years, and the election came amid a tense and divided political climate.

Bolsonaro spent months questioning the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system, called on the military to oversee the counting of the ballots, and hinted that he might not leave power even if he lost. In the hours before the vote, he posted on his Twitter feed a video of former President Donald Trump urging people to vote for him.

The result was a kind of validation for da Silva, who became a hero to many Brazilians when he held the presidency from 2003 to 2010 when the economy boomed thanks to commodities.

Brazil has among the world’s highest confirmed coronavirus deaths per capita. It was affected by the global economic turmoil that came about from the Pandemic and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are economic problems, high inflation and discontent over inequality that are leading to a left wing government in many countries in the region.

Bolsonaro’s First Round Voting in Braslia: CNN Opinions on the Problems of Pre-World Warfare

Bolsonaro told journalists after voting in Rio that the first round would be crucial as he wore a green and yellow shirt with the Brazil’s flag. He gave a thumbs up and walked away when he was asked if he would respect results.

The polls will be open from 8 until 5 on Sunday. Congressional and gubernatorial elections will also be taking place. Results could come out as early as 9 p.m. in Brasília, thanks to the speed of the electronic voting system. The two top candidates will go to a second round if no one wins more than 50% of the vote.

Editor’s Note: Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, is professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.” She publishes the newsletter Lucid on threats to democracy. Her views are those of her own. CNN has more opinion on it.

Bolsonaro on the campaign trail in Brazil: What he wore to kick off the 2018 Brazilian presidential campaign in Juiz de Fora

Who are these thieves Bolsonaro vows he’ll wage war against? Is he speaking about the white-collar and petty criminals he vowed to eradicate when he came to power in January 2019 on an anti-corruption platform?

The Bolsono adminstration said it would cooperate with the transition of power, but the far-right leader left the country prior to the inauguration, and stopped short of explicitly concedes his election loss.

After his negligent handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, he was accused by a Brazilian Senate committee of “crimes against humanity.” He was unpopular because of the damage he did to Brazil’s precious Amazon rainforests.

If the elections don’t go his way he’s made Trump-like intimations of political violence. He said he will never relinquish the presidency.

Sunday’s voting was largely peaceful after a contentious, sometimes violent campaign in which Brazil’s democracy seemed to hang in the balance. Bolsonaro has praised the past military dictatorship in Brazil and his opinion poll numbers flagged as he challenged the legitimacy of the election.

Military coups and anti-democratic actions, including in Brazil, have always been justified as “saving the country” from tyranny and corruption. We can all hope that Brazilians will repudiate a president who stands for the darkest and most violent period of its past.

Both have been seen on the campaign trail wearing bulletproof vests. Bolsonaro wore his as he kicked off his re-election bid last month in the city of Juiz de Fora, where he was stabbed in the stomach during his 2018 presidential campaign. Da Silva, who is commonly referred to as Lula, was seen also wearing a vest during an event in Rio de Janeiro, the same city where a homemade stink bomb was launched into a large crowd of his supporters back in July.

“Four years ago I couldn’t vote because I had been the victim of a lie in this country. And four years later, I’m here, voting with the recognition of my total freedom and with the possibility of being president of the republic of this country again, to try to make this country return to normality,” Lula said.

Bolsonaro traveled to practically every state in Brazil over the course of 45 days of campaigning, according to an interview he gave to reporters.

It isn’t the first time that Lula is known for controversy. He was convicted for corruption and money laundering after spending a year in jail for his role in the Petrobras investigation. In March 2021, the Supreme Court Justice decided that his conviction should be tossed out, meaning that he will be able to run for president again.

Lula ad el paisao del ese no electoro y los egresados y na aperio encontrar

Electoral authorities say they expect final results from the first round to be officially announced Sunday evening. In the last few elections, results were officially declared two to three hours after voting finished.

On Saturday, he repeated claims that he will win in the first round of presidential elections “with a margin higher than 60%,” despite being 14 points behind in the most recent poll that day.

Critics warned that talk of loss of the election could lead to riots and even refusal to accept the outcome, for example, after Trump lost the election.

Two fatal accidents were registered by police on the opposite sides of the country last weekend. In the northeastern state of Ceara, a man was stabbed to death in a bar after identifying himself as a Lula supporter, according to police. The man in the BolsonARO t-shirt was stabbed and killed during a violent discussion with a man whom witnesses identified as a Workers’ Party supporter.

More than half of voters in Brazil are afraid of being attacked, according to a Datafolha poll. On election day, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal banned firearms within 100 meters (30 feet) of any polling station.

There are fewer undecided Brazilians this year than in the past, meaning there could be a number of abstentions on Sunday.

It is one of the most important questions being asked by the candidates during this election because of a sputtering economy, rising hunger and the destruction of the Amazon. In 2020 the US saw what happened and now people know about the attack on the Capitol. On the left, people are concerned about a similar situation here. He was one of the first world leaders to acknowledge Joe Biden as the winner of the election.

We should know the result, and whether there will be a runoff, around 7 p.m. Eastern tonight. Just because Lula is leading in the polls doesn’t mean something unpredictable can’t happen here.

A Conversation With Jack Nicas About His Voting Experience in Brazil and Other Latin American Countries: The Case Of Davide Agatha de Carvalho

Jack Nicas leads The Times’ coverage of Brazil and six other Latin American countries. Brazilians were fascinated by his efforts to translate the Portuguese words “tchutchuca” and “imbrochável” in his election coverage — two slightly vulgar words that each had their campaign moments.

Agatha de Carvalho, 24, arrived to her local voting station in Rio de Janeiro’s working class Rocinha neighborhood shortly before it opened, hoping to cast her ballot before work, but found 100 others were already lined up. She said she would vote for da Silva.

A lot of people died because of him. If he hadn’t done some of the things he did, some of those deaths could have been avoided,” she said.

He defended traditional family values, rebuffing political correctness and presented himself as protecting the nation from left-wing policies that put personal liberties at risk, all of which helped build a devoted base.

The election came at a crucial moment for Brazil, where surging food and fuel prices, coupled with a painful economic slowdown, have caused poverty to surge, reversing decades of social and economic progress.

Several left-wing leaders have recently taken power in the region.

If Da Silva gets more than 50% of the votes, he won’t need to face off against another person in a second round. Brazil has more than 150 million eligible voters who can vote, but it is not compulsory to cast a ballot.

Born and raised in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

I never supported the Workers’ Party again because of the scandals in his first administration. I think that it makes everyone else look better, because he was wrongly imprisoned and because Bolsonaro is a bad president.

da Silva recalled that four years ago he could not vote because of imprisonment, and spoke after casting his ballot in So Bernardo do Campo.

Before joining the army he was a child of a lower-middle-class family. He turned to politics after being forced out of the military for openly pushing to raise servicemen’s pay. He was a fringe lawmaker who expressed nostalgia for the country’s two-decade military dictatorship.

Traditionally, the armed forces’ involvement in elections has been limited to carrying voting machines to isolated communities and beefing up security in violent regions. A parallel count should be conducted by the military, according to Bolsonaro.

While that didn’t materialize, the Defense Ministry said it will cross check results in over 380 polling stations across Brazil. After the election, anyone can consult a tally available at each station and online.

Conservative candidates were misjudged by polls in the country. Governors and lawmakers supported by Mr. Bolsonaro also outperformed polls, winning many of their races on Sunday.

The president of Ipespe defended his company’s research, claiming that they had predicted Mr. da Silva would end up with more than half the vote.

Mr. Lavareda speculated that many voters who had said they would vote for less popular candidates had switched to Mr. Bolsonaro — or that they had lied to the pollsters.

Almost two days after Sunday’s vote, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro finally made his first statement about the election but did not concede that he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“Lula represents democracy,” said Julia Sottili, a museum worker who voted for da Silva because of what she described as Bolsonaro’s authoritarian tendencies. “Lula wants to improve people’s lives and end hunger. He is really concerned about human rights.”

The Violent Question of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: Following Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency

He went into prison after leaving office for a year and a half after he was caught in a wide-ranging corruption scandal. His political career was over. Then, in a stunning turnaround, he was released on a technicality in 2019 and launched his campaign for the presidency — the sixth time he has run for the office.

By contrast, Bolsonaro’s second-place finish on Sunday was a sobering result for the president whose erratic behavior and policy decisions cost him support.

Bolsonja continued, “As a citizen, I will follow all of the rules of the constitution, even though I am the president.”

Ciro Nogueira, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, told reporters that the president had authorized him to begin the transition process.

Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s runoff election 49.1% to da Silva’s 50.9% — the slimmest margin in Brazil going back at least to its return to democracy in the 1980s.

His silence until now fueled concerns that he would refuse to recognize the results, even as political allies and others close to Bolsonaro publicly acknowledged his defeat and called on him to respect the vote.

On election night, President-elect da Silva said to supporters in São Paulo, “Anywhere else in the world, the president who lost would have called me by now and conceded.”

Truck drivers have blocked roads in more than a dozen Brazilian states, causing disruptions. The road to São Paulo’s international airport was blocked and many flights were canceled.

In his national address later Tuesday, Bolsonoglio said the protests were a popular movement due to the injustice of the election. He urged demonstrators to avoid damaging property or disrupting the democratic process.

Today’s riots come about a week after the inauguration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election on Oct. 30 and now returns to power after a 12-year hiatus.

Bolsonero’s backers have gathered at military bases around the country to ask the army to step in because there was no evidence that the election was stolen.

In his ruling, Alexandre De Moraes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Electoral Court Alexandre, said all models of electronic ballots were “perfectly identifiable in a clear, secure and integral way.”

Deputy Justice Minister Flavio Dino: Lula vowed to return the country to its former glory before becoming the next president in his second term

There are supporters camped out in the capital. Justice Minister Flavio Dino authorized the Armed Forces to set up barriers and guard the congressional building Saturday due to the continued presence of Bolsonaro supporters. But the crowd breached those defenses Sunday.

The man was arrested after he tried to get into the inauguration party with a knife and fireworks.

Much of the campaign, which was marked by misinformation and vicious online attacks, devolved into mudslinging with little discussion of the challenges the country’s next leader would face.

Mr. Lula oversaw an era of growth during his two terms in office, when a commodity-fueled boom turned Brazil into a global success story. He pledged to return the country to its former glory days.

The left-wing candidate said that he would boost public spending and raise taxes on the rich. The $113 monthly cash voucher is one of the programs that his plans include. Poor families with children will also receive an additional $28 per month for each child under 6.

Mr. Lula also promised to adjust Brazil’s minimum wage in step with inflation and revive a housing plan for the poor, while guaranteeing food security for people facing hunger.

He also pledged to create jobs by eliminating bureaucratic red tape, slashing taxes and investing in technology. Bolsonora said he would maintain a free market approach and kept public debt in check after his second run for president.

Echoing the rhetoric that won him support from ultraconservative and evangelical voters four years ago, Mr. Bolsonaro also promised to defend “the family,” opposing legal abortion and transgender education in schools.

Mr. Bolsonaro promised to expand access to firearms and expand tough-on-crime policies because he credits them for a drop in violent crime.