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RIO DE JANEIRO – Before the elections in Brazil, Peter Rooker was struggling to find a presidential candidate on which he believed to be on 13 candidates. He was certain, however, of one thing: he would not vote for the far – right MP Jair Bolsonaro or Fernando Haddad of the left – wing Labor Party tinged with scandal.
But it is precisely these two candidates who came out of an inconclusive first round of voting and who will meet on October 28 for a second round – and Rooker is not happy.
"I would like to be able to support a good candidate instead of having to choose the lesser of two evils," said the 22-year-old event promoter from the city of Curitiba, in the south of the country.
Rooker is not alone. Twenty-five percent of voters supported one of the other candidates in the first round of October 7th. Since voting is mandatory in the largest nation in Latin America, these voters must now choose between Bolsonaro and Haddad, which may tip the election depending on what they decide.
For many, this choice is atrocious, as polls have consistently indicated that both candidates have the highest rejection rates, that is, when a potential voter declares that he or she will not support any candidate under any circumstances.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is widely criticized for his praise of the 1964-1985 Brazilian military dictatorship and his offensive remarks about gay men, blacks and women. Haddad, the handpicked successor of former imprisoned president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is hurt by the reluctance of many people to regain power in the Workers Party, which led Brazil from 2003 to early 2016.
"Centrist voters are orphans," said Carlos Pereira, a political analyst at the Get Tanks Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.
Many Brazilians express their disdain for candidates through memes, hashtags and banners illustrating their profile. After the first round, some Facebook users added a "Not him" frame to their photo, referring to Bolsonaro, while others placed banners saying "Not the Workers Party" or "I'd rather pay for fine than to vote ".
During the election campaign, both candidates hammered out what voters do not like about each other and no claim seems to go too far. The Haddad team recently released a video comparing Bolsonaro to Adolf Hitler, while the far-right candidate uses his daily conversations on Facebook Live to compare the Workers Party to the North Korean or Venezuelan regimes.
In the first round, Bolsonaro obtained 46% of the votes, against 29% for Haddad. Surveys indicate that Bolsonaro's support has increased by almost 60%.
He gained wide support by positioning himself as the antithesis of the Workers Party and much of the ruling power. He notes that he has not been found guilty of corruption – unlike many Brazilian political leaders – and has pledged to fight crime and to fill his Cabinet with alumni and current generals.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to oppose his policies and comments, while his supporters went to rallies Sunday across Brazil.
Opinions on the Workers Party also divide the country. Many people who allocate social programs to the administrations of da Silva, president in 2003-2010, which allowed tens of millions of people out of poverty, while the country enjoyed a strong economy thanks to commodity boom.
Yet, for many, it is impossible to forget that the vast corruption scandal "Car Wash" involving bribes to politicians happened while the party was in power. Brazil's economy has also experienced its worst recession in decades under the presidency of the Workers Party, Dilma Rousseff, who was indicted and removed from office in 2016 for illegal management of the federal budget. Rousseff, the successor of da Silva, has always denied wrongdoing.
"I feel badly voting for the Workers Party after all they have done, but Bolsonaro is dangerous," said Rooker, who voted for center-left Ciro Gomes in the first round of voting. ballot. Gomes came third.
For Anna Caroline Viana, a 21-year-old student in the capital, Brasilia, migrating from Gomes to Haddad is not that difficult. Although she does not want to see the Workers' Party return to power, she is not opposed to Haddad, a former university professor and minister of education who regards most as moderate.
Most important for her, Haddad is not Bolsonaro. "If the only way to beat a candidate who diminishes me for the color of my skin and my sex is to vote for the Workers Party, I will do it," said Viana, a black race.
Bolsonaro, who runs on the platform of the social-liberal party, has offended many people with a flood of derogatory comments. Twice he told a congressman that she "did not deserve" to be raped by him because she was ugly. He said that the descendants of slaves who live in colonies of "quilombola" "are not even good at procreation". He said that he preferred to have a dead son rather than a gay one.
Jose Ricardo Ortolan said he did not like Bolsonaro's rhetoric, but was adopting a more moderate tone. The 50-year-old doctor is more worried about Bolsonaro's lack of economic experience and public disagreements with his vice-president, Hamilton Mourao.
"It was still an easy choice: my vote is against the Workers' Party because of their history of corruption and their ideology on the left," said Ortolan, from the city of Campinas, in the south-east of the country. .
Ortolan's favorite candidate was the former governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, whose pro-market party had always competed as the main opposition of the Workers' Party. However, as Bolsonaro's underdog campaign gained ground, Alckmin's support dropped and he finished fourth in the first round.
When Rosangela Mesquita, 58, saw the rise of the Bolsonaro elections before the first round, she decided to vote against the Workers Party and against Bolsonaro. She plans to vote for him again later this month.
"I had no choice. This election shows how tired we are of old Brazil, "said Mesquita, owner of a newsstand in Rio de Janeiro.
Helio Saboya, a 58-year-old lawyer in Rio de Janeiro, said he would launch another type of protest vote: a blank vote.
In the first round, more than 40 million voters did not choose a candidate. Twenty percent decided to pay a dollar fine instead of voting, which represents the highest forbearance rate since 1998. Nearly 9% handed out blank ballot papers and the last Ibope poll shows a similar percentage for the second round.
"I am going to throw my vote in the trash because it is there that he is facing these two candidates," Saboya said.
For Elizabeth Muller, 58, instability seems inevitable. The retired employee of the airline in Sao Paulo leans towards Bolsonaro.
"No matter who wins, chaos will prevail, because a large part of society will not be satisfied," she said.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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