Simone Tebet and Ciro Gomes, third and fourth in the first round respectively, collected 7% of the ballots
The scenario for the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil, on October 30, is completely open. Former president Lula Inácio Da Silva confirmed what the polls predicted and touched 50% of the vote. However, the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, contrary to forecasts, has collected more than 43% of the ballots. What seemed like it was going to be a comfortable victory for Lula has turned into an open contest. In this scenario, the votes that have gone to Simone Tebet and Ciro Gomes, third and fourth respectively, seem crucial, as well as those of those who opted for abstention, barely 20% of the electorate.
Between Tebet, from the center right, and Gomes, from the center left, they have added more than 7% of the votes. Due to ideological affinity, the votes of the first should go to Bolsonaro and those of the second, to Lula. But in a country as complex as Brazil, where the polls have also shown that they are not capable of detecting the underground vote, as has happened with the Bolsonarist bases, it is risky to make a forecast. The position that both adopt in the coming days will be vital: if they decide to ask for the vote for one of the two candidates or will they give their voters freedom.
Tebet has been the main revelation of the first round. Leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), he has garnered 4.16% of the votes, almost five million ballots. She was one of three women among the twelve candidates who stood for election, and she excelled in television debates.
Tebet prepares to take a seat before an electoral televised debate, together with ex-president Lula. /
Tebet, 52, has been a lawyer and senator since 2018. Until now, the only executive position she has held is that of mayor of Tres Lagoas, the municipality from which she is originally from, in Mato Grosso do Sul. The powerful agricultural sector is deeply rooted in this state. Bolsonaro has aligned himself during her mandate with the interests of this sector, with great influence in the country along with the arms industry and the Evangelical Church. Interests, on the other hand, often contrary to those of environmental groups on issues such as deforestation of the Amazon, which has experienced a boost with the current president. The candidate, however, has shown concern and sensitivity towards environmental issues during the campaign.
The MDB is a formation founded in 1980, when the country was still under the military dictatorship. He has ruled twice. The first in 1989, in the first democratic elections, with Itamar Franco. The second, in 2016, when Michel Temer succeeded Dilma Rousseff after she was removed from office by Parliament.
Gomes, former minister of Lula
As for Ciro Gomes, he has garnered 3.08% of the votes, just over three and a half million ballots. Unlike Tebet, he is a political veteran. He was governor of the state of Ceará in the mid-1990s and has been a presidential candidate three times; the last one, in 2018 against Bolsonaro. On that occasion, after being dismissed in the first round, like now, he did not ask for the vote for the Workers’ Party.
Gomes, upon arrival at the electoral college, this Sunday. /
Gomes has been a minister on several occasions. He was in the first democratic government of the aforementioned Itamar Franco, where he held the Finance portfolio. Later he was part of Lula’s first Cabinet as Minister of National Integration.
His party, the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), has disputed votes with Lula’s PT, with whom he shares ideological affinity. However, he tried to present himself in the campaign as a kind of third way in the midst of the polarization between Lula and Bolsonaro. During this legislature, he has harshly charged the president, especially in the wake of the disastrous management of the pandemic, which has left more than 670,000 dead in Brazil, the second highest figure in the world only behind the United States.
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