BREAKING: Reports of Voter Suppression in the Second Round of Brazilian Presidential Elections
Votes are being counted as Brazilians cast second-round ballots for the Presidential candidates of their choice.
The two primary candidates, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Lula da Silva, are facing off again after they both failed to get at least 50% of the vote in the first round of elections. Lula did win the first round if the percent of total votes is considered, however.
As you’ve heard me and likely many others say before, this election is, much like the U.S. election of 2020, a battle for the soul of the nation. The winner of this election will hold the keys to Brazil’s next decade as a South American powerhouse. Much-needed progress is desired by much of the nation’s working-class population who recognizes the country’s policies’ inherent racial and economic bias. As a “white,” light-skinned person in Brazil, one is intentionally more likely to have access to healthcare, quality education, and basic necessities like food and running water. According to Oxfam, at their current pace, the wages of Black people in Brazil won’t be equal to those of “white” people until 2089. Social democracy would thus serve the nation quite well as Brazil’s six richest men have the same wealth as the poorest 50% of citizens.
Alarmingly, Brazilian friends of mine have been sending me videos all day via Instagram of what appears to be voter suppression. I’ve been in touch with my friend Ananda Oliveira who is a history teacher, tour guide, and resident of Niterói, Brasil––across the bay from Rio de Janeiro city.
Here’s what she had to say:
There has been no doubt that these presidential elections in Brazil would be tense and scary, but honestly, as a black Brazilian woman, I’ve never thought I’d witness what has happened in this second round.
As soon as I got home from my voting station lots of videos started appearing online, from voters from various parts of the country appearing to be stopped by Policial Rodoviária Federal (federal highway police) from reaching their voting stations. Needless to say that this “operation” - as the officers called it - was happening in places where voters were most likely to be voting for Lula da Silva.
It’s important to state that this year a few states manage to make public transportation free of charge so that everyone, especially people that wouldn’t be able to afford transportation, would be able to vote. As a result, in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, the subway transport had been free by municipal decree, and today, on election day, patrons were told they needed to pay to make use of it. It took over 4 hours to solve this problem. In the city of São Gonçalo, which has over 1 million inhabitants, in a neighborhood called Salgueiro, Brazilian voters were reaching their voting destination by foot, because the mayor of the city supports Bolsonaro.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Brazilians have been asking the institution Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Superior Electoral Court) and its Minister Alexandre de Moraes to do something about the situation. This is not only seen as an electoral crime, which violates the constitution, but also as a “coup” attempt by Bolsonaro.
During a press conference that was transmitted online via Youtube at the institution channel justiçaeleitoral (around 3 pm Brazilian Standard Time), the Minister said that after having a meeting with the director of the Policial Rodoviária Federal, Silvinei Vasques he concluded that according to the director this “operation” was held by law.
This is interesting to think about it because this didn’t happen on October 2nd when Brazilian people went to vote for the 1st time. The minister also said that the voting time would not be extended, which is something that a lot of people online were pressuring him to do.
This situation only started to happen because candidate Lula was winning beating Bolsonaro by a large margin. Lula's win was more than certain, and today a lot of people wanted to vote for change and hoped that things would get better. But this voter suppression might cost Lula the election as the new president.
The only hope Brazilians have (me included) is that everyone that goes to vote until 5 pm (Brasília time), as long as they are inside the place where their voting stations are, are allowed to vote. That’s Brazil's only hope.
What a sobering note from Ananda. The Position of the People supports Lula da Silva in this election and rebukes any use of voter suppression of any kind in favor of any candidate. Join me in a call to action against voter suppression and FOR global democratic freedom.