Brazil pro-democracy manifestos aim to curb Bolsonaro’s election threats

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Maria Carolina Marcello

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian enterprise leaders, intellectuals and artists gathered on Thursday to learn manifestos defending democratic establishments after assaults by President Jair Bolsonaro which have raised fears he might reject the outcomes of October’s presidential election.

The far-right chief and former military captain has questioned Brazil’s digital voting system and attacked Supreme Court docket justices who oversee elections, accusing them with out proof of favoring his leftist rival, who leads in opinion polls.

Distinguished Brazilians, from high bankers to union leaders, signed a manifesto organized by Sao Paulo’s confederation of industries (FIESP) expressing help for the judiciary because it prepares for the Oct. 2 election below fireplace from Bolsonaro.

They known as the highest court docket “the final word guardian of the Structure” and stated the Superior Electoral Court docket (TSE) has performed the nation’s elections with complete integrity.

One other manifesto, additionally learn out to a cheering crowd at College of Sao Paulo’s regulation college and signed by almost 1,000,000 folks, warned that the nation’s democracy was below risk.

“Out with Bolsonaro,” the viewers shouted after the manifesto known as “Letter to the Brazilians” was learn in the identical place as an analogous manifesto was learn in 1977 to denounce Brazil’s army dictatorship on the time.

The manifesto was signed by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who’s the frontrunner within the presidential race, though his benefit has narrowed in latest polls.

Bolsonaro, an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump who backed his false claims of fraud within the 2020 election, ridiculed the manifesto, saying he had no must signal a letter to show his democratic credentials.

His opponents say he’s making ready the bottom to contest the election outcomes if he loses, as Trump has achieved since 2020.

A number of thousand demonstrators later marched alongside Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue in help of democracy and chanting requires Bolsonaro to cease threatening the voting system.

Related demonstrations had been deliberate by civil society organizations in different Brazilian cities.

“The aim of the demonstrations is the protection of democracy … in opposition to the specter of a coup,” certainly one of their organizers, Raimundo Bonfim, informed Reuters.

Brazil’s most polarized election in many years is predicted to go to a second-round runoff between Bolsonaro and Lula on Oct. 30 if neither candidate win 50% of legitimate votes on Oct. 2.

The nation’s high newspapers canceled a presidential debate deliberate for Sept. 14 after the 2 essential candidates didn’t affirm their participation. Bolsonaro stated he would solely debate after the primary spherical. Lula cited scheduling difficulties.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Sao Paulo and Maria Carolina Marcello in BrasiliaWriting by Anthony BoadleEditing by Brad Haynes, Richard Chang and Deepa Babington)