The thousands of voters who gathered at Alameda University at 5 a.m. this Sunday to vote in the second round of the Brazilian elections are between the hope of a better future and the regret of a “dirty” election campaign.
Shortly after the polls opened at 8am, and as they hastily entered the law faculty of the University of Lisbon, some of the voters surveyed by the Lusa bureau congratulated themselves on the huge involvement of the Brazilian community in Portugal, “proving democracy” , but criticized the “aggressiveness” between the two candidates in the election campaign.
Mariana Yunes, who has been in Portugal for five years and has been queuing since 7 a.m., emphasized to Lusa about an hour later, at a time when the lawns of Alameda da Universidade were already full of voters, the commitment of the population to vote , a sign that “people are willing to make democracy count”.
“[Mas a campanha] it was very complicated because we had two extremes, two giants competing. It was very aggressive, it was not a soft campaign, it was very aggressive, very polarized [entre os candidatos Jair Bolsonaro e Lula da Silva]. And people ended up choosing certain candidates because of that polarization. Polarization was the big problem in this election,” he said.
Miquelina Palhares, who has lived in Portugal for three years and has been queuing up since 07:40, criticized the election campaign for the second round of the election – “there was a very dirty part” – and emphasized the huge crowd waiting behind her to vote, as this represents democracy.
“It’s called democracy, everyone wants the best for the country no matter who they’re going to vote for. It’s the choice people made and so we’re going to pick the best one and believe that everything will be fine. unfair, with a very dirty part But I believe that the good always wins and, certainly, God is greater and will do the best for our country,” he said.
Rafael Morais, three years ago in Portugal, dressed in a red shirt with stickers depicting Lula da Silva’s face, showed himself clearly against Bolsonaro, whose government he believed has increased homophobia and misogyny, and expressed hope for a change of heart .
“I think the Brazilians were now tired of everything that happened in Brazil, with all the homophobia, misogyny, all the corruption that the Bolsonaro government caused. The poor lost value, lost the right to study, lost home and today I have see that many people have mobilized to come and vote consciously,” he insisted.
Diego Porto, who also spent three and a half years in Lisbon, admitted that he had not voted in the first round, on the 2nd of this month, was more reserved, adding that he took the opportunity to say “the woman to accompany” to the vote in Lisbon for this time vote, although the campaign disappointed him because of “disinformation”, so, he said, it was through the news in Portugal that he became much better informed.
“I followed [a campanha] by both the Portuguese and Brazilian online press and I think there was a lot of misinformation on both sides. There were some things I didn’t like. But the Portuguese press was very balanced, gave us a lot of information so that we could understand each candidate’s proposals and make the best decision,” said Diego Porto.
In Lisbon, 45,273 voters are registered to vote in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, with 20,266 votes in the first round.
According to the Brazilian consul in Lisbon, Vladimir Waller Filho, about 5,000 voters had voted by 10 a.m., at a time when the 58 polling stations with electronic voting machines had queues of 10 to 20 people and outside the building of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, tens of thousands of people were still waiting to exercise their right to vote, either filling the lawns of the shopping center or in long lines starting at the Hospital de Santa Maria, amid an environment where joy reigns and without incident.
Source: DN
