Brazil Elects Its First Female President, Dilma Rousseff

Hi all,

Yesterday Brazil made history by electing Dilma Rousseff, a woman, as its next president, defeating Jose Serra. It has been interesting for me to watch the process here. Here are a few random thoughts as an outsider looking in:

Overall, the election process here is good. It seems fair and efficient – surprising given that this is Brazil. I love Brazil, but let’s be honest, despite the words on its flag (“Order and Progress”), fairness and efficiency aren’t probably the first words that spring to mind when someone says “Brazil”.

There are a lot more political parties than in the US. No one could tell me exactly how many, and – apolitical lump that I am – I didn’t bother to search for an official listing. But the plethora of parties assures that virtually any government in power will be a coalition government. Looking at what has become of the Democratic party and (worse still) the Republican party in the US, I think that more parties might be a good thing. Maybe we would end up with more moderate policies and not have to accept so much crap with the good.

But back on Brazil: There is a first-round election. Rarely does any candidate gain the needed 50+% of the popular vote in the first round. A run-off election is held between the two candidates garnering the largest pluralities. In this election, Dilma and Jose Serra, governor of the state of Sao Paulo, received the most votes, with Marina Silva of the Green party collecting a tidy 20%.

Dilma’s election, most seem to agree, was due to the support she received from Lula, Brazil’s popular outgoing president. Had Marina thrown her support behind Serra, the outcome might arguably have been different, but Marina chose to remain neutral.

The vote collection and counting here is MUCH better than in the US. Ballots are collected electronically everywhere, using a single system, and the system implemented is regarded to be largely tamperproof (although the courts did invalidate some votes). Each candidate has an identifying number, the first digits of which indicate his/her party affiliation. It’s a simple system and again, difficult to tamper with. Contrast this with the US, which, even after repeated vote-counting debacles, still uses a hodgepodge of systems some of which are easily tampered with. (Can you say Palm Beach County?) Really a disgrace for an industrialized nation.

In Brazil, the president is elected by popular vote of the people. Hey, the people elect the president in the United States, too! No, the Electoral College, a dinosaur from the earliest days of the republic, elects the president, often overriding the popular vote. (Most recently Truman over Dewey, Kennedy over Nixon, and Dubya over Al Gore.)

It is interesting that a woman was able to win here. Brazil still is largely an old boys’ club. It will be interesting to see how that might change with a woman at the helm. Here, as in the US and many countries, woman outnumber men in the universities, and women are increasingly present here in many traditionally male fields. Many, many doctors, dentists, and attorneys here are women. Maybe this is just the vanguard? What would a world run by women be like?

But Dilma, while a long-time bureaucrat, has never actually held elected office. (Can you say Jesse Jackson?) She was the candidate of the Workers’ Party, which is essentially socialist. While I am not particularly socialist (If I am anything politically, it is disillusioned and disgusted), I believe that a little socialism may be just what Brazil needs at this juncture. I don’t believe that there is one form of government that is right everywhere at every point in history. Brazil has massive resources and wealth, which is still very unevenly distributed – and this distribution is generally traceable back to the earliest days of the country. The rich here typically aren’t rich because they, or even their grandfathers, worked hard to amass wealth, but because the crown granted someone a huge “captaincy” 400 years ago. The miserable poor have largely remained miserable. But that has changed significantly under Lula, with many from the lowest class inching up. Brazil as a whole wants to see his policies continue, therefore voting in his protege, Dilma. The lower and lower middle classes are strongly for her; the other classes less so.

Dilma has strong if not overwhelming popular support, but she has a lot to do. She takes office January 1st, and we’ll be following her progress. She is taking the reins as Brazil is taking its place in world economic and political affairs.

We’ll be keeping a watchful eye out.

OK, enough for now. If you are interested, here are a couple of links to further reading:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1102/1224282482687.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/01/dilma-rousseff-wins-brazil-president

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/11/dilma-rousseff-brazil-elections-win.html

Ate mais,

John

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