Economists Pessimistic with Brazil’s Presidential Election Outcome

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With ten days before the first round of presidential elections in Brazil and candidates still battling it out to see who will go to the second round, many economists are pessimistic of the outcome of this year’s elections.

“I’m extremely pessimistic that among the two leading candidates one (Fernando Haddad) has the same (economic) proposals which didn’t work in the past and the other is an anti-PT ‘adventurer’ (Jair Bolsonaro) who has told us nothing about his economic program,” economist and former director of Brazil’s Development Bank (BNDES) Elena Landau told an audience of executives at the Ethos Institute’s annual conference this week.

The Ethos Institute’s conference main themes this year revolved around discussions about both national and state elections.

The institute promotes corporate social responsibility in both the private and public spheres, setting guidelines and indicators for companies to become more socially responsible in terms of labor ethics, environmental issues and social inequality problems facing the country.

According to Landau the current presidential candidates have no answers or solutions to the economic crisis faced by Brazil today and ‘debates do not address specific economic plans to be implemented’.

The former BNDES director says the population is left with a choice between the left (Haddad) who pledges to do ‘the same of everything that went wrong in the past’ and the right (Bolsonaro) whose expected choice for Finance Minister (Paulo Guedes) ‘has no experience in public sector economics’

“We are leaping into the dark,” concluded the executive.

Believing that both Haddad and Bolsonaro are risks for Brazilian democracy, ethics, and the country’s judicial system, Landau admitted she will annul her vote if the two are the candidates in the second round.

Pessimism is also seen in the analysis made by economist Marcos Lisboa, former executive-director of Itau-Unibanco and current president of Insper (University in São Paulo city).

“Brazil has failed in its social policies, because it has failed to truly discuss important issues such as social security reform and public servant benefits,”says the CEO.

“We are lagging behind not only in comparison to the U.S. and Europe but we are lagging behind most countries in Latin America,” adds Lisboa.

“I do not feel represented by either of these two candidates and did not expect after 54 years to be witnessing an election such as this one we are currently seeing,” concluded Lisboa.

And for millions of Brazilians their choice for president, Congressional representatives and state governors will not even be recorded.

On Wednesday Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that over three million voters who did not have their biometric (fingerprint) data registered will be unable to cast their ballots.

Most of these voters are from Northeastern states, a traditionally poorer region of the country, where biometrics is already a requirement.