RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As part of the Rio Times’ election coverage, Benjamin Wein is traveling through the nine states of the Northeast region to ask why the region historically favors the leftist Workers Party PT and to find out more about voters’ feelings for conservative President Bolsonaro
Piauí is the only state in the Northeast region with a non-coastal capital, Teresina. The state has the shortest coastline of any seaward-facing Brazilian state and has traditionally depended on agriculture and cattle raising.
In the decisive vote of the 2018 election, Fernando Haddad, the PT candidate, gained 77% of the votes in Piauí to President Bolsonaro’s 23%. On October 3, Lula is expected to gain a majority in all states in the Northeast, according to a projection by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
Around 1.5% of Brazilians live in Piauí. On the 2017 Human Development Index (HDI) – a sum of life expectancy, education, and income – the state scored 0.69, placing it 25th of Brazil’s 27 states. The national average was 0.77.
Warllen Leandro, an 18-year-old barman from a small town near Parnaíba
I don’t have any preference for any party. Some people like the president, some people don’t. Earlier presidents offered more help, but it’s all the same either way. One of the biggest problems in the state is school transport. When I was at school, I traveled two and a half hours to get to school to be there for six hours.
You have to be 16 to vote in Brazil, and I was 15 in the last election. This time I’m going to annul my vote. I don’t see any difference between voting and not voting. I think all politicians are the same; for sure, there are good people among them, but there is wrongdoing, and there are more people that want to commit wrongdoing. If someone wants to do something right, there will be ten people against them.
Voting is something secret and personal. People still agree with my choice [to annul the vote], but I usually don’t talk about politics with my friends.”
Rosaline Ferreira, a 34-year-old housekeeping maid from Barra Grande
I think the president’s unpopularity could be due to low levels of development in Piauí. It’s one of the states with the most scarcity. There’s a lot of wildlife on the roads. You could hit an animal while driving because they roam freely. There’s a lot of poverty.
I have a girl that’s at school, she likes it. The school was closed for two years during the pandemic. The president says one thing, and the governors do something completely different in their states. That’s why the school was closed, because of the PT governor.
I still don’t know who I will vote for … in the last election, I voted for Haddad. In the future, I want good health and a good education for my daughter. I want her to go to university.
Carlson Antonio, a 32-year-old fisherman from Barra Grande
Here in the Northeast, everything is Lula. Everyone is going to vote for Lula … Some things have been worse under Bolsonaro … he made a lot of cuts. The fisherman had rights which have been cut.
People are still buying prawns, but now they’re at R$60 a kilogram and before at R$25 for a kilogram. Petrol went up. Now it’s R$7 for a liter and was R$4 before. Diesel is going up to.
I’m going to vote for Lula. I’ve always voted for Lula, only my sister voted for Bolsonaro.