MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazil municipal elections runoff ratify “non political” candidates
Marcelo Crivella on Sunday won the mayor's race in Rio de Janeiro, beating leftist Marcelo Freixo by a wide margin. Crivella, with the Brazilian Republican party, garnered 59.35% of the votes to 40.65% for Freixo, who is with the Socialism and Freedom Party. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesHe sounds like a right loon. The PT really must be unpopular!
Nov 01st, 2016 - 04:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I hope those weird US religions are not catching on in South America, that's not going to help them at all.
The PT has finally met their Waterloo....they won in only 256 municipalities (down from 638 in 2016) out of 5,568. And out of those 256, only one town has more than 200,000 inhabitants. Think that says it all.
Nov 01st, 2016 - 05:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Internally, the PT is desintegrating...lots of nasty in-house fighting, with quite a few pushing to expel all those accused of corruption - which won't leave many - with some of the lesser-radical members considering changing party, and a few intent on kicking out all current party leaders, including Lula. The fact is that Lula has been the Worker's Party's own worst enemy. Not to mention that he will probably be arrested soon, and will join other ex-PT leaders in prison.
As to the 'weird religions', while they are nothing but a front to extort money from the ignorant, they are a serious social problem when one considers the average Brazilian's level of education.
The religion of the guy in the article certainly sounds pretty successful at making money, and less successful at doing anything useful for its followers. I really hope they don't become any more common in Brazil.
Nov 03rd, 2016 - 12:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0It's unsurprising that the PT are pretty screwed after presiding over the recession and massive corruption scandal. Aren't there tons of parties in Brazil though. What are the chances that people will just move their support to a similar one? Or do you think they are more inclined to a total change of direction?
About your other post, talking about military intervention; I'm surprised that any would be in favour. The military government in Brazil didn't kill as many people as those in Argentina and Chile, AFAIK, but they did torture a lot of people.
However, since the majority recently voted for someone who did previously rise up in arms against the military government, it seems kind of unlikely that they would support any military intervention.
DT
Nov 03rd, 2016 - 04:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0there are several of these 'cults' in Brazil, and their mission is to brainwash their followers to donating all they can. Better education might solve this (partially), but even quite a few educated people get caught up in their lies. Unfortunately, many learn the hard way, when they 'discover' that miracles don't exist and they are broke.
There are 32 political parties in Brazil, and dozens more waiting to be approved by the TSE (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral)...but according to the president of the court, Gilmar Mendes, not only will these pseudo-parties not be registered, he wants to see the current number reduced to a maximum of 12....still far too many, but at least a push in the right direction. Even if the number is reduced, there will still be those promoting far-left ideology, populism (usually in bed with the left), the centre and the right...so people will just migrate to whatever suits their views...but here's the problem : most voters are incapable of discerning between party propaganda (mostly lies) and the truth, and can be easily convinced to vote for 'a', 'b' or 'c', without really understanding the consequences.
I know that to many that have never lived in Brazil, the subject of military rule is a sore point, and highly undesirable. However, when they took over, there weren't many 'good' alternative options. While the military did indeed torture those that rose up in arms against them, what country - when at 'war' didn't ? The fact is that the average citizen could go about his daily life without any restraint...while the military did not appreciate those who opposed them politically, they only really hunted and clamped down on those who resorted to violence, robbery, kidnapping and assassinations to make their point. A few outspoken journalists, seen to be supporting the so-called 'freedom-fighters', didn't fare so well either. But if you went about your daily business normally, you weren't harrassed. I never was.
@ Jack Bauer
Nov 03rd, 2016 - 08:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's true, even educated people get caught up in these things. IMO it's because people believe what they want to be true, like in so many other issues we see.
I can't imagine how 32 parties can even distinguish themselves to the voters! Surely only a few of these are big enough to matter? and is there no reliable source of information in Brazil so voters can check the facts, or do they just not bother?
I would hope that most countries do not torture people when at war, although I'm sure it happens more often than we know about. I don't think it's an acceptable price to pay anyway.
The articles I read claim they used torture to eliminate the opposition, not just against militants, and that 191 people were killed and 243 'disappeared' during the military rule.
I suppose these only represented a small percentage of the population, but didn't the lack of freedoms affect everyone?
Wait till these candidates learn the “tricks of the trade” of making their [undeclared, offshore] accounts fatter.
Nov 03rd, 2016 - 09:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT
Nov 06th, 2016 - 08:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You're right when you suggest that only a few of these parties are large enough to matter ; today they are about one-third of the total, the rest being small parties without much representation on a national scale, yet they function as parties “for hire” when any congressional voting comes around. The sprung up like mushrooms when a reasonably prominent politician on the national scene wanted more time under the limelight, so off they went to register their 'own' party, and then try to attract malcontents from others. Obviously, it is impossible to have 32 different philosophies across the political spectrum, and you find that they are divided into 4 main tendencies : the radical left, the moderate left, the centre, and slightly right-of-centre. If the political reform actually happens, the top ten should absorb the members of the other 22, as these should have no trouble fitting in somewhere.
Back to the military : considering that the urban guerillas had no qualms about killing anyone who got in their way when going about their missions, especially the military, when they were caught they weren't shown much mercy ; while the human rights activists here, love to talk about the torture and condemn the military, very little or nothing is ever said about the dozens of innocent civilians, victims of the guerillas, as well as the soldiers killed during attacks to barracks, or when in direct confrontation. During the PT administration, the government created what they called the “Commission for Truth”, to investigate the fate of the so-called “freedom-fighters” , with the sole purpose of awarding their families large indemnities, while it specifically prohibited the Armed Forces from conducting their own investigations into the atrocities committed by the guerillas...
When the military took over, most of the population felt great relief, and as I said, those who kept their noses clean were as free as a bird to do as they pleased.
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