- Brazil’s head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, has been officially named his party’s candidate for the presidential elections in early October.
- The 67-year-old only joined the Liberal Party at the end of 2021 in order to be able to take part in the election.
- Last week, Brazil’s Labor Party nominated former head of state Lula da Silva for the presidential election.
On Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, the Liberal Party nominated General and former Defense Minister Walter Souza Braga Netto as Bolsonaro’s vice presidential candidate.
According to polls, right-wing populist Bolsonaro is well behind left-wing ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was nominated as a candidate for the PT Labor Party in São Paulo last Thursday. The PT’s nominee for vice president is former São Paulo state governor and former Lula rival Geraldo Alckmin.
Jair Bolsonaro is hoping for a tailwind after Congress allowed the government to spend more on social spending in the election year. In addition, Bolsonaro sows doubts about the Brazilian electoral system.
Election campaign starts on August 16th
A candidate for the presidency cannot run without a party in the largest country in Latin America. Bolsonaro was elected as a member of the right-wing Partido Social Liberal in 2018. The founding of his own party after he left in 2019 did not go beyond the phase of collecting signatures.
Parties and alliances now have until August 15 to register their candidates with the Supreme Electoral Court. From August 16, election campaigns in Brazil are officially allowed.