Democracy Now...

Brazil has only been a democratic country since 1988, so you can imagine that voting, as a concept, is interpreted in a very different way than in Canada. Not only that but the state of democracy, and the way that the general population
perceive this seems, in my opinion, to be much more fragile than had ever occurred to me, after all the people my age would remember, just barely, being under military rule. So October 5th was the date for municipal elections in Brazil...
and I must admit I was intrigued to be here to witness the entire process. My host family graciously tried to explain it to me.. it was interesting to see how religious symbolism is used to gain support for a certain candidate. For example, the card shown here is modeled after cards of saints that you can purchase from street vendors along with a rosary.

Does this look like Christ to you? Another example, you can't really tell from this image but the body looks remarkably similar to that of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, about two blocks from where this photo is taken. Blastphomy? No. With the amount of candidates running it's important to get the attention of the public. This is where your social network comes in really handy,since you're more likely to get in based on support from your friends, rather than your political platform. Who has time to compare over two hundred platforms anyway?


below is just one of many walls of candidates for Fortaleza's mayor


I'm not saying that voting in Canada is not a popularity contest, but with obligatory voting producing a 90% turnout I found the discussion to often be around the personal history of the candidate, who he/she knows, what type of family they are from who they are married to (one candidate was losing voters because his wife played an unpopular character on a tv soap) rather than issues.

Obligatory voting is interesting too... everyone over the age of 18 to 65 is obliged to vote. If you just do not show up your access to all public services is cut. This is enough of a deterrent to ensure that people actually engage in the electoral process, even at the municipal level. This is democracy in Brazil.