GOIÂNIA, Brazil — Right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro collected a string of endorsements on Tuesday for Brazil’s Oct. 25 runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and said he wants to use a newly strengthened conservative Congress to change the country’s Constitution, El País, Valor International and G1 reported.
Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado, who finished fifth in Sunday’s first round with 2.18 percent of the vote, formally backed Bolsonaro at an event in Goiânia. “I am here to defeat the PT,” Caiado said, referring to Lula’s Workers’ Party, according to El País. The União Brasil–Progressistas federation, which stayed neutral in the first round, also announced its support after a unanimous decision by its party leaders, Sen. Tereza Cristina said. Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema of the Novo party declared his vote for Bolsonaro on Monday.
Bolsonaro, a senator and the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a sentence for coup plotting, won 47.03 percent of first-round votes to Lula’s 45.16 percent, according to G1. Speaking in Goiânia, he said voters had given him a Congress “much further to the right,” with majorities to choose the leaders of both chambers, “so that we can change the Constitution, so that we can redemocratize this country,” Valor International reported. He did not say which changes he has in mind.
G1 noted that the Constitution can be amended through proposed constitutional amendments that require large majorities in both houses, while some core clauses cannot be abolished. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) remains officially neutral, and Bolsonaro is also courting the Republicanos party of São Paulo Gov. Tarcísio de Freitas, who attended the Goiânia event, UOL reported.
Sources: El País, Valor International, G1
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