After years of scandals and economic crises, Brazilian voters are increasingly fed up and disillusioned by their politicians
There is no doubt that what is happening in Brazil is true of other nations around the world. It is that people now appear to have had enough of politics and politicians. For instance, 13 percent of voters in Brazil are saying that they plan to spoil their ballot papers before the elections on Sunday.
Voting is compulsory in Brazil, but fines are negligible and many people abstain or cast blank votes as a protest. Three out of ten eligible voters in the 2014 election gave up their right to choose their president.
You may or may not know that in some central and South American countries, election candidates must be approved by gangs and drug cartels if they are not to be eliminated prematurely. In Italy, the mafia is always interested and wants to have a say in choosing those who become political leaders. In Nigeria, politicians have been known to bury millions of dollars in graves in desperate bids to cover their tracks.
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia, current president of Brazil
The level of corruption in Brazil is a mirror of what is going on in most nations around the world. A prosecuting judge, Sergio Moro, who has steadfastly exposed corruption across the Brazilian political class recently carried out an investigation which implicated half the sitting senate, and a third of the congress.
Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad : The main candidates in Brazil's presidential election
Sadly, what people have often failed to acknowledge is that the politicians of a country are generally a reflection of the people of the country. In other words, the politicians of a country are products of the country, that is, the politicians are an offshoot of the people. As our representatives, they reflect our values. It is probably because of this that a saying goes thus : A people deserve the leaders they get.
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