Lula and Bolsonaro lead the start of the electoral race in Brazil

First modification: 08/16/2022 – 19:29

The electoral air continues to be breathed in Latin America. This time mobilized to Brazil, where this Tuesday, August 16, the political campaign was launched towards the elections that will take place on October 2, where governors will also be defined and Congress will be renewed.

With the formal start from midnight, now the 12 candidates who aspire to the Presidency will be able to hold meetings and spread propaganda on social networks, the Internet and print media. For radio and television, the permit will start within ten days.

The first polls were published and showed that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads unanimously and with a considerable difference – it ranges between 12 and 16 points depending on the pollster – over the current president, Jair Bolsonaro.

However, the rightist has improved his figures in recent months, lowering the negative indices, raising the positive ones and settling the differences in the most important Brazilian states.

According to IPEC (former IBOPE) estimates, Lula has a 44% voting intention, 12% more than Bolsonaro for the first round. While, for a second, the figure would go to 51-35 in favor of the leftist.

09:30

The pollsters agree that the numbers favor Lula, but less so than a few months ago. The positive image of the current head of state rose to 29%, 10 more than in December 2021, while he equalized the difference in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, the two most populous districts.

Lula, who was in power between 2003 and 2010, opened his campaign with a video on his social networks, where he asked for the support of voters to “change the life of the people again.”

“Hunger is back, inflation is scaring families and the minimum wage is not enough to pay for a basic basket,” he said.

Both Lula and Bolsonaro have scheduled important symbolic acts as the first step in the race towards the Planalto Palace. The official will go to Juiz de Fora, the place where he was stabbed in 2017 a few weeks after being president.

“I invite everyone to participate in this civic act in favor of Brazil in the city where I was reborn. God, country, family and freedom”, emphasized the candidate of the Liberal Party.

Bolsonaro aims to increase spending on social assistance for the poor and is pressuring state oil company Petrobras to lower fuel prices, a factor in inflation.

For his part, the candidate for the Workers’ Party (PT) announced a visit to a car factory in the metropolitan area of ​​São Paulo, where his origins in politics were as a union leader.

Both Lula and Bolsonaro have stipulated to participate in the investiture ceremony of the new head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes.

Despite the polarization, there are a dozen candidates

Lula and Bolsonaro will star in the dispute to be the next president of Brazil, but still there are 12 who are formally on their way to the polls. The figures of the intention to vote put them well below, with none exceeding 10%.

The closest is Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party, a 64-year-old lawyer with a long political career. In his experience, he has been mayor, minister, deputy and governor. It will be his fourth attempt at the presidency, although estimates only give him almost 10%. He knew how to be an ally of Lula, although they later ended up at odds.

The center-right Simone Tebet –Brazilian Democratic Movement- will have her first foray into presidential campaigns at the age of 52. With origins in the agricultural sector, she barely has 2% followers.

The rest of the candidates do not reach 1%. Among them are Vera Lúcia Salgado (United Socialist Workers Party), businessman Felipe D’Avila (liberal), right-wing senator Soraya Thronicke (Brazil Union), Léo Pericles (a 48-year-old mechanic, Popular Unity) and the communist Sofia Manzano.

Among the long list of candidates appears an 82-year-old man, José Maria Eymael (Christian Democracy), the oldest of the 12. He was a federal deputy three times and will go for a sixth attempt at the Presidency.

The remaining ones are Roberto Jefferson (Labor Party, an ally of Bolsonaro, ex-Lula) and Pablo Marcal (35 years old, Republican Party of Social Order), although the latter’s candidacy was withdrawn by his party to support Lula despite the registration at the TSE.

With EFE, Reuters and local media