The two presidential candidates who are to square off in Brazil’s runoff election this month have called for an end to politically motivated violence, which has emerged as a central theme in the elections.
Numerous cases of violence were reported in the week before the first round of voting on Sunday last week, and more have been reported since. The second round of voting is scheduled for Oct. 28.
The race has exposed deep divisions in Latin America’s largest nation, with the two candidates representing opposing visions for the future and many Brazilians worried by violent incidents in the name of politics.
“What is going on is extremely worrisome,” said Sergio Praca, a professor of political science at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university in Rio de Janeiro. “We need to figure out how to get out of this situation.”
On the right is the frontrunner, Brazilian Social Liberal Party candidate Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who speaks approvingly of the country’s dictatorship from 1964 to 1985 and has promised a violent crackdown on drug gangs and other criminals.
On the left is Brazilian Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor who has promised to return the country to the leftist policies that his party implemented when it governed between 2003 and 2016.
While most incidences of violence have been blamed on Bolsonaro supporters, the candidate himself was stabbed while campaigning on Sept. 6, allegedly by a man who told police that God had told him to attack. Bolsonaro was discharged from the hospital on Sept. 29.
Late on Wednesday, Bolsonaro said on Twitter that he did not want the vote “of anybody who practices violence against those who didn’t vote for me.”
In a meeting with members of the Brazilian Congress in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, Bolsonaro again condemned the violence — with some threats of his own.
“Even if they are my supporters, I will make them pay if they don’t obey the law,” he said.
His statements came after days of criticism from Workers’ Party supporters who said that Bolsonaro was turning a blind eye to attacks by his followers.
Runner-up Haddad also called for an end to the brutality, saying that parties need to confront the issue together.
He has suggested signing a “no violence” pact with Bolsonaro.
“This escalation of violence has to stop,” Haddad tweeted on Wednesday night.
Bolsonaro gained 46 percent of votes in the first round of elections, compared with 29 for Haddad.
In a poll released on Wednesday, he maintained a wide lead, with 58 percent compared with 42 for Haddad.
The Datafolha poll interviewed 3,235 people on Wednesday and had a 2 percentage point margin of error.
Brazil has long struggled to curb violence, a part of daily life in many areas. The country has the dubious distinction of being the world leader in total number of homicides each year: Last year, a record 63,880 were slain.
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