Brazil election 2018: exit polls show first-round victory for far-right candidate Bolsonaro

[sandensea]

When exit poll results were announced, putting Jair Bolsonaro well ahead of Fernando Haddad (with 45% of the vote to Haddad’s 28%), the crowd celebrated, chanting “Lula thief!” and “Yes to him!”

Supporters remained confident of a first-round win despite an IBOPE exit poll showing Bolsonaro with 45%.

Things are moving fast here and 68% of the vote has already been counted. It looks like Bolsonaro is just going to miss out on the 50% of the vote he needed to win a majority in the first-round and secure a first-round victory, which means he and Haddad will face off again in a second round of voting on 29 October.

Behind Bolsonaro in the polls is Haddad, a former São Paulo mayor and 55-year-old intellectual. He took over as the PT candidate after former President Lula da Silva was ruled ineligible to run, due to the fact he is in jail. Haddad is promising a return to the days of economic boom enjoyed under Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2011.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/oct/08/brazil-election-2018-polls-close-after-chaotic-and-unpredictable-campaign-live

Fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro (left) will face off with Worker's Party candidate Fernando Haddad (middle).

Democratic Labor Party candidate Ciro Gomes (right), who received 14% of the vote, may prove pivotal in deciding the winner of the upcoming, October 28 runoff.

[GatoGordo]

1. The assassination attempt made him a martyr.

Chavista stuck a shiv in him while campaigning and now, as was feared, he has sympathy.

[Judi Lynn]

2. A look at the campaign proposals made by Brazil's Bolsonaro

A look at the campaign proposals made by Brazil's Bolsonaro
Peter Prengaman, Associated Press Updated 11:38 pm CDT, Sunday, October 7, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil's presidential race Sunday, doing far better than polls predicted and coming just shy of an outright victory. In the weeks ahead of an Oct. 28 runoff against former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, Bolsonaro's main proposals are sure to come under much scrutiny.

Here is a look at what Bolsonaro has promised to do if elected.

Bolsonaro has promised to carry out widespread privatizations in Latin America's largest economy aimed at giving a boost to recovery from one of the nation's worst recessions in decades. Bolsonaro has also said privatizations are necessary to eradicate the kind of state graft that has been rife in recent years. While the business community has largely coalesced around Bolsonaro because of these proposals, detractors have noted that as a congressman he often voted and espoused views that were the exact opposite.

SPENDING AND TAXES

Bolsonaro has said he would sharply cut spending to confront an expected budget deficit of US$39 billion next year. He has also promised to cut taxes and simplify the tax code, though he has not provided details. He has sent confusing signals. When economic adviser Paulo Guedes, a banker trained at the University of Chicago, recently floated bringing back a bank fee, Bolsonaro said Guedes had been quoted out of context and that there would be no new taxes.

CONFRONTING VIOLENCE

Bolsonaro, who waxes nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 dictatorship, has said he wants to loosen gun laws to allow more people to be able to carry them in public. He has also said he would push to give police forces freer rein to shoot while on patrols. The idea of emboldening police, already responsible for high rates of shooting deaths, including Rio de Janeiro, has sent shock waves through poorer communities.

CULTURAL WARRIOR

Bolsonaro, who has a long history of offensive comments about women, blacks and gays, has repeatedly said he will return Brazil to "traditional values." While he hasn't specified what that might mean, many groups fear that he'll seek to cut racial quotas in universities and curb rights of minorities, such as transgender people, who recently gained the right decide what gender to put on their national identification cards.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/A-look-at-the-campaign-proposals-made-by-Brazil-s-13289183.php

[Judi Lynn]

3. As Misogynist, Homophobic Bolsonaro Advances to Run-Off in Brazil's Election, Critics Fear 'Genuine

Published on
Monday, October 08, 2018
byCommon Dreams

As Misogynist, Homophobic Bolsonaro Advances to Run-Off in Brazil's Election, Critics Fear 'Genuine Fascist' Takeover
Jair Bolsonaro aims to bring about "the worst abuses of the kinds of dictatorships that summarily executed dissidents, that shut down media outlets, that closed congresses, that we thought was a thing of the past here in Latin America."

by Julia Conley, staff writer

Anti-fascist Brazilians expressed horror late Sunday as they watched the misogynist, racist former military officer Jair Bolsonaro advance toward a likely victory in the country's presidential race, days after hundreds of thousands of women and allies protested his extremist agenda.

Shocking journalists and poll-takers by unexpectedly winning 46 percent of the vote in the general election's first round, Bolsonaro now heads to a run-off scheduled for October 28. He will face former São Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad of the Worker's Party (PT), who garnered just over 29 percent of the vote.

The election results stoked fears that under Bolsonaro's Social Liberal Party (PSL), Brazilians could soon be living under a military dictatorship like the ones that ruled the country for large portions of the 20th century—and which Bolsonaro has reminisced about during his campaign.

. . .

"You really don't have institutions the way you do in the U.S., like a strong Supreme Court or a kind of deep state of the CIA and the FBI or political parties that would constrain him in what he wants to do," Greenwald said. "And especially given how much popular support there now is behind him, there's a substantial part of the country that is genuinely terrified about what he intends to do, and intends to do rather quickly, and probably can do—namely, bringing back the worst abuses of the kinds of dictatorships that summarily executed dissidents, that shut down media outlets, that closed congresses, that we thought was a thing of the past here in Latin America but is now on the verge of returning to its most important and largest country."

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/08/misogynist-homophobic-bolsonaro-advances-run-brazils-election-critics-fear-genuine