Elections

Last Sunday we had elections here in Brazil. It has to be said, it was a complicated affair.

Marcelo was trying to explain to me the intricacies of the system, which, with my limited Portuguese was not the easiest of tasks, but I think I got the gist of it. I came away believing that one needed a degree in Brazilian politics to understand it fully, but here, I hope, is a brief synopsis.

This was a general election, comprising votes for the President, Upper House and Lower House of Federal Government. There were races for the State Governors, plus the State Legislature and the Federal District. Marcelo was also trying to explain that he also voted for “Prefects” but I have no idea where they fit into the mix.

Running for President were Dilma (known by her first name and running for Lula’s party), Serra, (known by his surname running for the main opposition) and Marina (the Green party candidate).

Dilma was widely expected to win the required 50% of the vote needed for an outright win, but in the end fell short with 46.9% of the vote. This will now trigger a runoff election in a month’s time between her and Serra who won 32.6%. Marina drops out.

Quite why, with the Brazilians’ love of technology they simply didn’t have a “second preference” vote beats me and that would have eliminated the need for the runoff. So a re-do in 4 weeks.

The Upper House has a total of 81 Federal Senators, comprising 3 for each of the 26 States plus 3 for the Federal District of Brasilia, the capital. Of these, 54 were up for election and win by a simple majority.

The Lower House has 513 Deputies, all of whom were up for election, and are elected by proportional representation.

Add into the mix the State Governors, State Legislatures and the mysterious “prefects” makes for a very complicated ballot paper.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. As well as being identified by name and party, each candidate has a number. So for example, Serra was number 45, but then again so was the candidate of Serra’s party who was running for Governor of Sao Paulo. Maybe this is the number given to all candidates running for Governor in each State if they belong to Serra’s party. The Senator from the same party was number 451. The State Deputy was 45545 but then the Federal Deputy for Serra’s party was number 2588 – go figure.

I couldn’t understand why on earth there would be numbers as well as names but then someone said something to me that made me think, “of course”. In Brazil it is compulsory for everyone to vote but there are swathes of the country where illiteracy is rife. I guess people have cottoned onto the fact that numbers are easier to identify than names might be.

We don’t have Brazilian TV so haven’t been bombarded with endless political commercials, but what we have seen is masses of posters, banners, flags and bill boards advertising the names and numbers of the various candidates. I did wonder what it would be like after the election with all the detritus of the campaign, but as we were driving home late Sunday evening, I was struck by how quickly everything had been cleared away, and (for Sao Paulo) the streets were relatively clean. Civic pride after all.

But as with most developing countries we have experienced, there is a lot to learn about the democratic process. I was talking to a lady only today, and she had asked her maid who she had voted for. The reply came, “Dilma for President, Alckmin for State Governor.” When asked why she hadn’t voted for any of the other positions, the reply was, “My priest wrote the names of the people to vote for and he left the names of the other positions blank so I didn’t vote for anyone else.”

I guess as least she participated in the democratic process. I love the idea that you can tick the box for “None of the above”.