MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Haddad and Bolsonaro already voted in decisive elections for Brazil and the region

Despite having reduced the distances, the latest polls indicate that Bolsonaro has a clear advantage and can be elected as president

One in Sao Paulo and the other in Rio de Janeiro; the candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad cast their votes this morning with the confidence that the surveys give to Bolsonaro, and the hope of the latter to reverse this advantage, warning Bolsonaro's threat to Brazil's democracy in the most polarized presidential elections in the recent history of the country.

Despite having reduced the distances, the latest polls indicate that Bolsonaro has a clear advantage and can be elected as president with between 54% and 56.8% of the nation vote.

The ultra-rightist Jair Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), favorite to win the presidential elections that are held today in Brazil, went to vote with bulletproof vest under strong security measures, avoiding contact with the press.

Outside the voting center to which Bolsonaro would go to vote, a military base in Rio de Janeiro, fences were installed and, an hour before the arrival of the candidate, an anti-bomb squad inspected the place.

On the other hand, and at the same time, the opponent of former military, the former mayor of Sao Paulo, economist and candidate of the Workers Party (PT), Fernando Haddad went to vote in the neighborhood of Moema in São Paulo between the support of followers charged with roses shouting slogans like “fascists will not pass” and under the sound of casseroles in sign of protest from the adjoining buildings.

In the last hours, figures that have shown neutrality between the two candidates as the former president of the Supreme Court of Brazil, Joaquim Barbosa, have expressed their support for the PT candidate, who replaced Lula da Silva after justice vetoed the former president for passive corruption and money laundering.

One of the issues that has fueled Bolsonaro's demagogue's discourse and what has made it rise in the polls is crime and the fight against organized crime.

However, for many Brazilians, it is the arms that are killing their relatives. Bolsonaro's plan, sociologists warn, to arm the so-called militias, para-military groups and even civilians would only increase the tension in the streets and the power disputes between these groups and organized crime, probably increasing the number of murders that in 2017 it closed with the record number of 63,880 homicides.

On Saturday the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo broadcast a video in which the former Uruguayan president, José Mujica, compared the probable victory of Bolsonaro with the rise of the former dictator and German genocide, Adolf Hitler.

“I hope the Brazilian people do not make that ugly mistake,” said Mujica, warning that “sometimes what we have is not very good, it has difficulties, and wanting to change we run the risk of choosing the worst. It can be changed for the worse,” insisted the former Uruguayan president.

In August, the conservative candidate indicated that, if he won, he would take Brazil out of the United Nations (UN).

“If I am president, I leave the UN. This institution is useless,” said the Social Liberal Party (PSL) candidate during a military ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, according to Deutsche Welle.

Bolsonaro's statement was made in response to a question about the decision of the Human Rights Committee of the UN, which requested guarantees for the candidacy of Lula da Silva.

“I leave, it's useless, it's a meeting place for communists and people who have no commitment to South America,” said Bolsonaro.