Brazil’s 147 million voters have taken the presidential election to a second round scheduled for 28 October.
In last Sunday’s first round the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro received 46 per cent of the vote as against the 29 per cent of Fernando Haddad, the candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT).
Bolsonaro’s vote represents a continuation of the upward trend of his support over the past few weeks: he won in 16 of Brazil’s 27 states, taking a clean sweep of the south, south-east and centre-west.Haddad won in the poorer north-east region and in the Amazonian state of Pará. If Haddad is to have any hope of overturning Bolsonaro’s lead, he must appeal to the supporters of centrist candidates eliminated in the first round, but also persuade some of Bolsonaro’s first-round supporters to think again. He must also win over Protestant voters attracted by Bolsonaro’s conservative social attitudes, and encouraged by many Pentecostal Church leaders to vote for him.
In the days leading up to the election, the president of the Pastoral Land Commission of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference, Bishop André de Witte, published a letter, warning voters against candidates "who do not protect the value of life and family and disregard the right to respect, health, education, housing and environmental protection".
Meanwhile the Catholic Church in Brazil is playing a major role in the reception of Venezuelan refugees who face increasing hostility as they cross their country’s southern border. From the town of Pacaraima in Roraima, where the local parish distributes 1,600 breakfasts a day, there are reports of rising tensions. Thousands flee Venezuela everyday, escaping economic collapse under the Socialist Government of President Nicolas Maduro, that has left food and medicine scarce.
Venezuelan cardinal Baltasar Porras, Archbishop of Mérida in Venezuela, has described the Venezuelan exile of more than two million people since 2014 as “an excruciating reality". After a recent visit to Brazil he also noted the hardship facing the refugees. “We see professionals, people with degrees who have worked for years in their field…. and we find them in some Latin American country working as a cook or as a waiter".
A "national plan for integration" and solidarity towards refugees has been organised by the Brazilian Church. It is supported by the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops , the Diocese of Roraima, Caritas Brazil and the Jesuit Service for Migrants and Refugees, among others.