Is Brazil’s Election Just Another Missed Chance?
The top two candidates headed to a runoff have given voters no clues about how either will revive the country’s economy, perhaps because they don’t have any.
Brazil’s economy could use a redeemer.
Photographer: Fabio Teixeira/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesIf you take investors at face value, Brazil’s election on Sunday was a promising deal. Following a campaign light on policy and heavy on character assassination, neither of the two top contenders for the presidency clinched victory in the first round, sending the election to a rematch in four weeks.
The money on São Paulo’s Faria Lima was overjoyed at the strength of President Jair Bolsonaro, who won solidly across Brazil’s most prosperous regions, coming in an unexpectedly close second place to his rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from the Workers Party, who many expected to avert a runoff by crossing the 50% threshold.