Today is Election day in Brazil. Now what?
Another brief reflection on what it means to be an immigrant watching the Presidential elections in my country happen from afar
So the big day has finally arrived today. Today, millions of Brazilians exercise their mandatory right to vote for President, Vice-President, and National Congress.
And yes — in Brazil, citizens between the ages of 18 and 70 years old have the legal, compulsory obligation to vote. And while participating in the democratic process is often a cheerful celebration, especially for young adult citizens like myself, today is I’m weary of what happens once all eligible citizens cast their electronic ballots and the results are announced in the evening.
In my previous blogpost, I shared how I struggled to navigate the emotions of being an immigrant unable to exercise my mandatory voting rights in Brazil. I shared how although I expect to be more actively engaged and emotionally in recent political happenings back home, I realized the unexpected opposite.
I genuinely felt nothing. But this changed yesterday.
During an impromptu brunch meal with one Canadian and two Brazilian friends, we watched John Oliver’s one of the latest episodes of Last Week Tonight. For those interested in watching it and knowing what I base the rest of this reflection on, you can find it here. Just note that John Oliver begins reporting and commenting on Brazil’s electoral context and stakes at the 12:47 time stamp.
In his latest video, John Oliver provides a quick recap of Brazil’s current and complex political context. He provides an overview of Bolsonaro’s candidacy and past presidency, especially his problematic management of the COVID pandemic public health crisis, to Lula’s now-candidacy after being trialed, conviccted, and emprisoned for corruption in 2018 yet then having all legal proceedings being dismissed after the judicial system finding evidence of wrongful institutional procedures.
John Oliver also takes the time to address Brazil’s distinguished electronic ballot system, allowing us not only to mobilize over 150 million elegible voters in the country to successfully cast their ballots, but also granting the population to know the election results the same day, just within a few hours after the end of the electoral time frame.
And while the political context in Brazil has been overwhelmingly complex for the past years, what triggered further concern and disturbance in me was John Oliver’s mention to incidents of horrific political violence. During the past days leading up to today’s election day, I learned through his video the few cases of citizens murdering other citizens for diverging political views.
Let me restate that to emphasize the gravity of the situation. People in Brazil are killing other fellow Brazilian citizens over disagreeing political views. And learning this news devasted me even further. We can never forget that regardless of our political views, life is an undeniable human right, and that our worth of existence should never be reduced to our political views.
John Oliver references how experts and journalists have, respectively, predicted and reported the high likelihood of something like the US Capitol riots repeating themselves in Brazil. And what’s even more alarming is that their predictions are even more catastrophic. Bolsonaro is a former military capitan, known for being an unsubordinate member of the institution. And since Bolsonaro has suggested to perform similar behaviors to the ones Trump adopted when losing the election in 2020, his supporters have already expressed that they are ready to take matters into their own hands. After all, some of Bolsonaro’s supporters believe that if their candidate doens’t win, then the election was scammed. However, I also worry how our country will react if Bolsonaro is reelected, either today or within a month, because a lot of people are also fed up with his poor leadership.
While I understand that we navigate an endless sea of current events, engulphing us in a never-ending cycle of socio-political ravage and hopelessness, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this before the election results are announced. I worry that regardless of who wins, whether today or in the eventual Presidential runoff later this month, it will push my country over the edge.
“Things are very tense right now,” John Oliver states. And when saying that, I felt my body tense up and my heart swallow itself in my chest. So to all those reading this, I have a message for you.
The state of the Brazilian population is that of a pressure cooker—as debates get more heated and emotional steam builds up within the pot, it only takes one small action to remove the lid and potentially cause an explosive mess. And while this may seem like a dramatic metaphor (or even lowkey culturally playful because our staple food, Brazilian beans, are prepared using the signature pressure cooker), my concerns are not solely political and about the state of our democracy.
I worry about how if, as a country, we can ever recover from whatever happens today. And if we can or can’t, how will it affect the future of over 200 million people. And how will it specifically affect my loved ones, including my friends and family?
The population is so deeply polarized, and polarization has only worsened since the 2018 election. We had already witnessed political violence, including towards then-candidate Bolsonaro when he was stabbed at a rally. Political violence unfortunately cursed Latin American countries for decades. Yet recently, it has morphed out of control, into something unwillingly instigited within each individual. People sustain this fabricated political dichotomy, and this further separates us rather than uniting when we need it the most.
I worry about the countless unknowns at stake in my country right now.
And just now, I accessed my electronic electoral documents via the designated app and, using geolocation technology, demonstrated I am abroad and, therefore, cannot cast my ballot. In Brazil, we call this “justifying the vote,” meaning that you provide a reason for why you cannot vote while still being required to provide proof of this decision.
It always hits different these types of news come from the place you call home. Because no matter your citizenship status, immigrant or not, you have the right to an opinion. Even if you may not be able to measure the political context yourself through your own field research in the physical space, you can still worry about the unknowns. Because these worries weight your heart differently when you’re so far away.
So my message is really just to keep Brazil in mind today. And if today is really the only electoral day, still keep Brazil in mind after today.
And I will also restate what I wrote in a previous piece discussing the assassination attempt of Cristina Kirchner in Argentina — in an increasingly polarized world, we must seek to find ways to actively defend the democratic system.
Thank you for reading until the end. Take care of yourself. And if you’re Brazilian, take extra care. Confiemos em que tudo dará certo no final, mesmo que o final seja desconhecido para nós por enquanto.❤
