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On Tuesday, the governor of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the liberal Romeu Zema, made official his support for the candidacy of the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the second round of elections on October 30.
“I believe much more in President Bolsonaro’s proposals than in those of his adversary,” former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Zema told reporters after meeting with the president at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence of the ruler.
Zema, from the conservative Novo party and reelected last Sunday with a wide lead, is in the Executive of the second largest electoral college in the country, where Lula led the voting with 48.29% over Bolsonaro’s 43.60%.
Lula, with 48.43% of the valid votes nationwide, will have to define the Presidency in a second round on October 30 with Bolsonaro, who obtained 43.20%, a percentage similar to that obtained by both in Minas Gerais.
In the first round, Zema’s presidential candidate was his party’s representative Felipe D’Avila, who obtained only 0.47% of the valid votes and finished sixth among the eleven candidates.
“The PT (Workers’ Party) made up economic development between 2015 and 2016, when Brazil had the biggest economic recession, while the rest of the world was growing,” Zema stressed Lula’s socialist formation.
Bolsonaro, for his part, celebrated the governor’s significant support for his campaign.
“Zema has great support for the management he has done. This support is decisive, and we will have greater strength over the adversary,” Bolsonaro said.
In Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro elected his senatorial candidate for the Liberal Party (PL), Cleitinho Azevedo, with 41% for a single seat at stake, and several deputies, among them Nikolas Fereira, the most voted in the country, with 1.4 million votes.
