Vote in Brazil and General Elections 2018: Are the Pillars of Democracy in Danger (Published)
In one of the most controversial and disputed general elections in Brazil, more than 147 million voters will choose their representatives, on October 2018. For the first time in the Brazilian democratic government history, the far-right wing candidate, was attacked and stabbed in the middle of a campaign rally. Also unprecedented was the initiative of the former Brazilian left wing president, Lula da Silva, convicted and sentenced to 12-year imprisonment for money laundering and passive corruption, who was disputing the presidency from jail. In a democracy, however, no matter how fierce a presidential election is, any differences shall be resolved through vote. Therefore, given its importance to democracy, in this article we investigated the history of the vote in Brazil, from paper-based to electronic suffrage. We analyzed the different past voting systems, until the general elections 2018, where biometric identification was included successfully. Current facts and figures are presented in this single case study. Finally, recommendations for future research complete the present work.
Keywords: Democracy, General Elections, Vote