Brazil prepares for another month of political battle as run-off looms over nationalization plan
Brasília, Brazil – Three months after thousands of people marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro to demand the resignation of the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, the election is less than two weeks away.
In the run-up to the vote, as the country’s bicentenary approaches on October 2, the left-wing mayor of Brasília and his running mate have been busy laying groundwork to block the re-election bid of Bolsonaro, despite high hopes they may have for a change in power.
The pair has already spent millions of reals (USD$2 billion) on a campaign and social media campaign, both of which have been directed at the public, most of whom have chosen to remain largely deaf to the protests of the past two years.
Although the election day has not officially arrived, early voting has begun across the country and is on track to attract more than 15 million voters.
For the capital’s mayoral candidates, the upcoming battle is now less about the merits of a specific party or candidate than about the future of the Brazilian capital.
“Bolsonaro will win, despite all our efforts to stop him,” Marcelo Crivella, the mayor of Brasília, told Al Jazeera. “He is a winner.”
“They [the candidates] have built everything around winning and nothing else.”
Crivella said he would be the final to win, and that his success would be the first to take office since Brazil’s first post-World War II president, José Sarney.
While he does not predict that the opposition parties will win the elections for president and congress, he said, “we have our task to make sure we don’t get two presidents”.
“Bolsonaro will win, despite all our efforts to stop him,” he added. “He is a winner.”
Bolsonaro, 64, is a three-time former army captain who served as a congressman and a presidential candidate, first for the Social Liberal Party (PSL) and, since 2016, for the rightwing