2022 Brazil Presidential Election (C1000x)

The **2022 Brazil Presidential Election** was held on Sunday, October 2, 2022. It was the 9th presidential election in Brazil after the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The election were held amid the astonishing Brazilian economic growth of 2022. Incumbent president of Brazil **Jair Bolsonaro**, from Patriot Party, defeated former president of Brazil **Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva** from Brazilian Social Democracy Party and journalist **José Luiz Datena** from Progressives in a landslide victory, winning 62.01% of the popular vote. No other candidate in Brazil's history has ever equaled Bolsonaro's total electoral votes in a single election.

## Background

### COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil began on 2020, disrupting Brazil's economy. The Federal Supreme Court decided that the presidency of Brazil isn't responsible for interfering in the decisions of state governments on the restriction of services and movement of people adopted during the coronavirus pandemic, determining that states, municipalities and the Federal District adopt restrictive measures such as closing trade, schools and suspension of cultural activities. As a measure to face the crisis, the National Congress approved emergency aid, later sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro said that, while worrying, there is "oversizing" and "hysteria" regarding the coronavirus situation. Bolsonaro responded to criticism by saying: "As the chief executive, the greatest leader of the Brazilian nation, I have to be at the front, together with my people. Don't be surprised if you see me, in the next few days, entering the crowded subway in São Paulo. Paulo, getting on a barge on the Niterói crossing at peak hours; or on a bus in Belo Horizonte. Far from demagoguery and populism. It's a demonstration that I'm on the side of the people, in joy and in sadness".

In July of the same year, after fever, muscle pain and malaise, Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus. However, he reported that his fever would have subsided, attributing the improvement to **hydroxychloroquine**. In the same month, he exhibited a box of chloroquine for rheas who lived at the Palácio do Alvorada, as well as riding a motorcycle without wearing a mask, talking to street sweepers while he was contaminated.

On January 17, 2021, the National Health Surveillance Agency approved the emergency use of the vaccine against COVID-19 (which was approved for the first time in the UK.). The Butantan Institute imported the first 6 million doses of Coronavac in collaboration with the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. Fiocruz has developed a partnership with the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

### Liberation and Annulment of Lula's Convictions

After being sentenced in the first instance under Operation Lava Jato to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering, in November 2019, the former President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva was released a day after the Supreme Court ruled that the execution of the sentence should only occur with the transit in res judicata of the sentence. In 2021, he regained his political rights in view of the decision of Minister Edson Fachin to annul his convictions in the Lava Jato, since he considered the Federal Court of Paraná incompetent to judge him. Lula, then, was a pre-candidate for the presidency of Brazil by PSDB.

### Third-Way

After Lula's libertation, some independent and centrist politicians created the Third-Way, in which he travels far from the extremes represented by Bolsonaro and Lula. Names such as Luiz Mandetta, José Datena, Sérgio Moro, Luciano Huck, João Amoêdo participated in the cast. In the end, journalist and presenter José Datena was the name of the Third Way in the 2022 election.

### Auditable Vote

25 years after the debut of electronic voting machines in the Brazilian elections, the use of these machines is back on the agenda. The discussion was led by President Bolsonaro, who accuses the model of being unreliable and claims that there was fraud in the 2014 and 2018 votes, in which he himself says he won in the first round. Bolsonaro wanted that, starting with the 2022 presidential election, the numbers that each voter types in the electronic ballot box are printed and that the papers are automatically deposited in an acrylic ballot box. His idea is that, in the event of an accusation of fraud in the electronic system, paper votes can be counted manually. In August 2021, Congress approved the Constitutional Amendment Proposal of the printed vote, making it possible to audit the election.

### New Brazilian Miracle

After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, the country experienced great economic growth, referred to as the **New Brazilian Miracle**, which began in late 2021. One of its characteristics was the strong progression, which led to a breakthrough in the product gross domestic product (GDP). The Miracle also reduced unemployment, whose unemployment rate dropped from 12.3% to 9.9% in February 2022.

## Nominations

### Patriot Party

(2019-2027)
(2019-2023)

### Brazilian Social Democracy Party

(2003-2011)
(1991–1994)

## Campaign=

Lula ran a socialist campaign, supporting the gun control and control of the media. He spoke out against what he considered injustice in Bolsonaro's economic policies and called him fascist, racist, sexist and homophobic.

At a campaign parade in Brasília, Distrito Federal, Bolsonaro said: "The future of Brazil is in a thousand dreams within their hearts. It is in the message of hope in the songs of a man that so many young Brazilians admire, Neymar Jr." Bolsonaro's campaign was very adept at producing advertising without a lot of resources and without electoral and party funds, just using the internet.

Third-way candidate José Datena, being exempt, had no ideas or ideologies, but only spoke of fighting the corruption of politicians and Bolsonaro's fascism

## Results

Bolsonaro was re-elected in the Oct. 2 election in an electoral and popular vote victory, winning 25 states and the Federal District as voting ended, counting election night at 7:30 pm in Brasília. He got a record total of 62.1% of the popular vote; 55% of the women who voted for Bolsonaro did, and his 54 to 61% of Catholic votes were the highest for a patriot candidate in history. Lula's 27.9% (only won in one state) marked the lowest total of any major presidential candidate since José Serra's 2002 defeat by Lula da Silva. Lula's defeat was also the worst for any PSDB candidate in Brazilian history.

Psefologists attributed a factor in Bolsonaro victory to the New Brazilian Miracle of the administration, which took the country out of the crisis caused by the pandemic.