2018 Brazilian general election

2018 Brazilian general election

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Presidential election
7 October 2018 (2018-10-07) (first round) 28 October 2018 (2018-10-28) (second round)
Opinion polls
Turnout	79.67% (first round) 78.70% (second round)[1]
Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Fernando Haddad Party PSL PT Alliance Brazil Above Everything, God Above Everyone The People Happy Again Running mate Hamilton Mourão Manuela d'Ávila Popular vote 57,797,847 47,040,906 Percentage 55.13% 44.87%
Second round, shaded according to vote share First round, shaded according to vote share Second round results by municipality Presidential election results
President before election Michel Temer MDB Elected President Jair Bolsonaro PSL
Chamber of Deputies
All 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 257 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– PSL Fernando Francischini 11.65 52 +51 PT Paulo Pimenta 10.30 56 −13 PSDB Nilson Leitão 6.01 29 −25 PSD Domingos Neto 5.85 34 −2 PP Arthur Lira 5.57 37 −1 MDB Baleia Rossi 5.53 34 −32 PSB Tadeu Alencar 5.48 32 −2 PR José Rocha 5.31 33 −1 PRB Celso Russomanno 5.08 30 +9 DEM Rodrigo Garcia 4.66 29 +8 PDT André Figueiredo 4.61 28 +9 PSOL Chico Alencar 2.83 10 +5 NOVO None 2.79 8 New PODE Diego Garcia 2.28 11 +7 PROS Felipe Bornier 2.08 8 −3 PTB Jovair Arantes 2.06 10 −15 Solidariedade Wladimir Costa 1.99 13 −2 Avante Luis Tibé 1.88 7 +6 PSC Gilberto Nascimento 1.80 8 −5 PV José Luiz Penna 1.62 4 −4 PPS Alex Manente 1.62 8 −2 Patriota Junior Marreca 1.46 5 +3 PHS Marcelo Aro 1.45 6 +1 PCdoB Orlando Silva 1.35 9 −1 PRP None 0.87 4 +1 REDE João Derly 0.83 1 New PMN None 0.64 3 0 PTC None 0.61 2 0 PPL Uldurico Junior 0.39 1 +1 DC None 0.38 1 −1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Chamber of Deputies election result
Senate
54 of the 81 seats in the Senate
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– PT Lindbergh Farias 14.46 6 −6 PSDB Paulo Bauer 11.85 8 −2 PSL None 11.33 4 New MDB Simone Tebet 7.47 12 −6 DEM Ronaldo Caiado 5.38 6 +1 PSB Antônio Carlos Valadares 4.80 2 −5 PSD Omar Aziz 4.79 7 +4 PDT Acir Gurgacz 4.52 5 −3 PP Ana Amélia Lemos 4.39 6 +1 REDE Randolfe Rodrigues 4.18 5 New PODE Alvaro Dias 3.21 5 +5 PHS None 2.47 2 New PSC None 2.41 1 +1 Solidariedade None 2.34 1 0 PR Vicente Alves 1.83 2 −2 PPS Cristovam Buarque 1.72 2 New PRP None 1.15 1 +1 PTB Armando Monteiro 1.11 3 0 PCdoB Vanessa Grazziotin 0.98 0 −1 PRB Eduardo Lopes 0.88 1 0 PROS Hélio José 0.80 1 0 PTC Fernando Collor 0.13 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Senate election result

General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election (and for the gubernatorial election in some states) received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff round was held of those offices on 28 October. On that day, right-wing outsider candidate Jair Bolsonaro defeated leftist Fernando Haddad and was elected President of Brazil.

The election occurred during a tumultuous time in Brazilian politics. Narrowly re-elected in 2014,^[2] President Dilma Rousseff of the centre-left Workers’ Party (PT), which had dominated Brazilian politics since 2002, was impeached in 2016.^[3] Replacing her was her Vice President, Michel Temer of the centre-right Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.^[4] Temer, whose age of 75 at inauguration made him the oldest to ever take office, broke sharply with his predecessor's policies and amended the constitution to freeze public spending.^[5] He was extraordinarily unpopular, reaching an approval rating of 7% versus 76% in favor of his resignation.^[6] Despite mass demonstrations against his governance, including a 2017 general strike and a 2018 truck drivers’ strike, Temer refused to step down and served the duration of his term in office.^[7] Due to being convicted of breaking campaign finance laws, Temer was ineligible to run in 2018.^[8]

The candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro, a controversial federal deputy from Rio de Janeiro known for his far-right politics^{[9][10][11][12]} and defense of the former Brazilian military dictatorship,^[13][9][14] overshadowed other conservative candidates. Noted for his vehement opposition to abortion^[15] and same-sex marriage,^[16][17] Bolsonaro joined the small Social Liberal Party (PSL) to mount his bid for the presidency, shifting the party's ideology in favor of social conservatism and nationalism.^[18][19] Bolsonaro benefited from opposition to the former PT government and ran in favor of expanding gun ownership in response to high crime,^[20] legalizing the death penalty,^[21] and the privatization of state-owned companies.^[22][23] For the position of Vice President, Bolsonaro chose Hamilton Mourão, a conservative retired general in the Brazilian Army.^[24] During the campaign, Bolsonaro was the subject of widespread protests for his homophobic,^[25] racist,^[26] and misogynistic^[27] beliefs. Former Governor of São Paulo Geraldo Alckmin, who ran as a member of the previously dominant centre-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), received the worst result for a presidential nominee of his party in Brazilian history.

Former President Lula da Silva, who left office in 2011 with high approval ratings,^[28][29] intended to run for president as the candidate of the PT with former Mayor of São Paulo Fernando Haddad as his running-mate.^[30] Polling taken during the campaign found Lula as the favorite in both the first and second rounds of the election.^[31][32] However, Lula's 2017 conviction on corruption charges barred him from running.^[33][34] Haddad, who was largely unknown to Brazilian voters at the time,^[35][36] was chosen to run in his place, with Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) deputy Manuela d’Avila of Rio Grande do Sul serving as his running mate.^[37] His major opponent on the left was Ciro Gomes, a mainstay of Brazilian politics who ran a centre-left campaign as a member of the Democratic Labour Party (PDT).^[38] Following Haddad's advancement to the second round, Ciro did not endorse his campaign, though he did signal opposition to Bolsonaro.^[39]

The campaign was marked by political violence, with Bolsonaro being a victim of a stabbing attack at a campaign rally in Minas Gerais^[40] and supporters of both Haddad and Bolsonaro falling victim to politically-motivated attacks.^[41] Fake news spread on popular messaging app WhatsApp was a focal point of election coverage, with disinformation spread on the app being blamed for influencing voting intentions.^[42] In the first round of the election, Bolsonaro received approximately 46% of the vote to Haddad's 29%, with Ciro coming in third place with over 12% of the vote. In the second round, Bolsonaro defeated Haddad by approximately ten percentage points, with the deputy receiving over 55% of the vote to less than 45% for Haddad. Bolsonaro took office on 1 January 2019 as President of Brazil.