Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro is forecasted to win’s the country’s national general elections today, 2nd of October, 2022, as Brazilians across the country turn up to the polls to cast their votes. The elections is projected to be a peaceful one with no national disturbances. Bolsonaro is going up against his longtime rival, Lula Da Silva who was jailed sometime back on corruption charges but later released.
Lula Da Silva has run a strong smear campaign against Bolsonaro calling him violent, a liar, and incompetent. Meanwhile, Bolsonsaro has taken credit for the revolutionary money transfer system introduced in Brazil in 2020 – Pix Money Transfer. Pix money transfer allows persons to make quick and no cost transfer of funds from one bank account to another in Brazil in an amazingly simplified process. In taking credit for pix money transfer, Bolsonaro praised his own government calling it “innovative and progressive.”
Bolsonaro has been criticized for his slow response to the pandemic, but at the same time, he has been praised for not coercing citizens into taking the shot, and also for not implementing any mandates that force citizens to take the shot. In fact, Bolsonaro himself did not take the shot.
Bolsonaro has been locally and internationally criticized for favoring industrialization more than the environment, and has been seen to some an extent as an enemy to indigenous peoples and their protected environments. He has been criticized for allowing too rapid a deforestation of the Amazon in the name of progress.
Lula on the other hand was a very unpopular president who was accused of communist ideologies, theft, corruption, and squandering Brazil’s funds to Russia. However, of recent, his popularity seemed to have increased slightly. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Lula will beat Bolsonaro in today’s elections. Bolsonaro is projected to be reelected for another term.
