Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts
Presidential candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad have both promised to end crime in the country by cutting violent street gangs and improving the quality of the police and prisons.
Presidential candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad have both promised to end crime in the country by cutting violent street gangs and improving the quality of the police and prisons by next month.
The two politicians have made their promises in the run-up to the first round of presidential elections on Oct. 7.
They also have to share the same day as a presidential runoff on Oct. 28.
Both men are under pressure to release their plans for fighting crime at this time of year.
With no party able to break through in any of the three leading candidates’ field, the race for the Oct. 7 runoff will be between Bolsonaro, a former army captain, and his right-hand man Haddad, a self-described “citizen politician.”
The run-up to the runoff marks the start of a campaign to replace the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached by congress on June 28 over a corruption scandal.
The first round must be held between Oct. 7 and Oct. 14; the runoff will be between Bolsonaro and Haddad on Oct. 28.
Bolsonaro made his promise on Monday to clean up Brazil’s cities, after a recent spate of murders in poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, the country’s largest city.
“If you want to know who stands for the life of the people … the people of Rio de Janeiro, who have been subjected to the violence that is taking place in their streets … Jair Bolsonaro will not fail,” Haddad said on Twitter.
Bolsonaro, 59, also promised to reduce violence in Rio to tackle high murder rates, and to make Rio a less violent city, a promise Bolsonaro repeated in a recent interview with a local newspaper.
The second round will take place between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1.
Haddad has also promised to