Tomorrow is election day in Brazil. Thank God! If I hear one more election jingle being blasted from the propaganda cars driving through the city, well, I don’t know what I’d do, probably nothing, because I’m not a citizen and can’t vote.
Anyway, elections! All the expats are blogging about it. Even the NYT made it their lead article online this afternoon, so I’ll jump on the bandwagon.
The big job is up for grabs this year. The major presidential candidates are in the picture above. Starting on the left, we have Marina Silva. (No relation to the current president. Silva is the Portuguese equivalent of Jones.) Marina is a native of the Amazon and passionate environmentalist. She’s running on the Green Party ticket after resigning from her job as Environmental Minister under current President Lula. She’s got her cred with the workers, something very important in Brazil, due to the years she spent working as a maid while she got through school. She fights for the preservation of the rainforest and rights of the native forest dwellers. Very cool! She is staunchly anti-abortion. Very uncool!
To the right of Marina is Jose Serra who’s running with the Social Democrats (PSDB). As a student union leader, Serra was forced into exile for 14 years after the military government came to power. During that time he got a PhD in economics from Cornell. He’s been a Senator from Sao Paulo and Health Minister under President Cardoso. He lost the 2002 Presidential Election to Lula. Now, he’s probably going to loose to Lula’s lackey. Let’s wait and see if he then grows a beard and gains 40 lbs.
Lula’s lackey, is better known as Dilma Rousseff. And she’s not really a lackey. She’s a handpicked protege who lacks the charm and energy of her predecessor. Not that she doesn’t have any experience. In fact, she was part of an armed rebel group fighting against the military dictatorship during her student days. She was eventually jailed and tortured. Under Lula she has served as Minister of Energy and Chief of Staff. Lula, whose approval is around 80%, has been at her side constantly for the last year. Electing her is essentially an endorsement of Lula’s government and Worker Party (PT) control of the government.
There’s also some old guy on the end. He’s not going to win so I don’t really care to find out who he is.
What I find ironic and depressing is that both Dilma and Serra are people who have personally experienced the brutality of a government that does whatever it wants ignoring the rule of law, yet they are running campaigns that continually violate electoral law. Serra has been fined seven times for a total of R$35,000. He’s paid R$5,000. Dilma has been fined 10 times by the electoral court. She’s paid R$16,000 of the total R$48,000 she owes. And in a truly shameful display of leadership, President Lula has been fined a total of R$47,500 for his illegal campaigning for Dilma and has failed to pay a single cent.
Marina has not been fined once. As of Friday one poll had her at 15%. See kids, follow the rules and you too can come in third place!
It’s disgraceful for the party in control to create a political culture where the rule of law can be ignored. PT leaders buy off lower income families with a monthly stipend (which they do need and certainly makes a difference in their lives) and then spend the rest of their time serving their own interests. They threaten critical media outlets, buy votes in Congress, and expand government’s role in industries to create jobs for their party bosses.
Not that I think any other party would behave differently. Without a doubt PSDB wins the award for slimiest attack ad. The ad claims a Dilma presidency will unleash a zombie army on Brazil that would release the hounds of hell and paint Brasilia red with blood. My Portuguese isn’t great, so I may have some of the details wrong. Watch for yourself and let me know what you think PSDB is trying to say.
