Local Elections

(This was originally written before the elections in 2012)

This year, 2012, we are having local elections where I live (as a foreigner I am not able to vote) and for the past month or more we have been subjected to canvassing unlike anything I have seen before, The elections are taking place early to mid-October and everywhere there are cars with huge loudspeakers blaring mindless music and slogans of their candidates (I believe that complaints locally have reduced the amount and times, but not so that you would really notice!). There are posters and fliers plastered everywhere too showing the number of the candidate (in Seabra, a town some 70 kms away, the loudspeakers repeat these numbers ad nauseum almost as though they are trying to brainwash the electorate into remembering their candidate’s number!), and cars and houses are also covered in these. Many people are unable to read or write properly so it is easier to remember a number to put your vote against. Interestingly voting in Brazil is done electronically, so the results are released very soon after the polls close, with no long-winded manual counting taking place.

We have 4 candidates standing for Mayor (Prefeito), and 63 standing for Councillor (Vereador), so that makes for a whole lot of canvassing! The minimum wage here is R$622 (which is a little over £200) a month, but the salaries offered for Mayor and Councillor are around R$20000 (about £6500) and R$12000 (about £4000), so it is perhaps understandable why there is so much interest in these jobs. I understand that these “salaries” are basic, meaning that there are expenses that can be added on top, especially for the Mayor, so the rewards are considerable, and explains why a town of only 10300 residents (of all ages) has 67 candidates for these jobs.

I have heard startling reports about how votes are being bought – from the candidates being harassed in the streets to buy beer in exchange for support, to bicycles being provided to others (there are even kids who lie about their voting age to get bicycles). I also heard that the canvassing cars, which have huge loudspeakers on the roofs and are sign-written, have been repaired and upgraded by the candidates in exchange for the owner’s vote. By all accounts it is all so blatant as well, no attempt to cover up the fact that you will only support a particular candidate if they do something for you in return, from simply being kept in beer during the campaign, to more extravagant requests like bicycles or car repairs!

It is sad to think that the candidates appear to be bluffed into thinking that the electorate will vote for them if they spend money gaining that vote (which is highly unlikely as most voters will end up voting for friends and not the most suitable candidate!), and worrying that those elected will probably be so much in debt by the time they are elected that municipal funds may be channelled into paying off those debts! Corruption starts at every level.