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FAR-RIGHT Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faces an electoral challenge over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic from health workers, almost 20,000 of whom are standing in local elections that began today.
The Supreme Election Council confirmed the candidacies of 19,400 doctors, nurses and other health workers in the contests, which many see as a referendum on Mr Bolsonaro’s leadership.
Brazil has recorded more than 5.6 million cases of Covid-19 and 162,000 deaths, making the country second only to the United States in the number of lives lost.
Mr Bolsonaro, who has twice tested positive for the virus, has sacked two health ministers and clashed with state governors over his handling of the pandemic.
Gustavo Triestman, a 33-year-old emergency doctor, is one of those standing as a city councillor for the United Socialist Workers Party.
“I believe we need to strengthen the public health system,” he said while handing out election leaflets bearing the slogan: “Bolsonaro out.”
The local elections, in which voters will choose mayors, vice-mayors and city councillors in all of Brazil’s 5,568 towns and cities, are the first elections since the president took office in 2018.
Some analysts are predicting a shift to the right, but Mr Bolsonaro’s government has been hit by allegations of corruption and the resignation of his former ally and justice minister Sergio Moro.
The country’s coronavirus crisis and struggling health service have become key issues in the campaigning for the elections, which have seen a 15 per cent rise in health workers standing as candidates since the last local polls in 2016.
While hospitals are overstretched, with every bed occupied, Rio state officials are suspected of stealing funding intended for the purchase of more ventilators and the opening of special coronavirus hospitals.
Police believe that about 41 per cent of the money spent by the state — about £96 million — may have been diverted. The Rio governor faces impeachment charges.
Amid such corruption scandals, health workers have emerged as figures that voters can trust in the election, whose second round will take place on November 29.
