1990 Brazil Presidential Election (C1000x)

	‹ 1985 1994
1990 Brazil Presidential Election
7 October 1990 (first round); 28 October 1990 (second round)
	Incumbent President; José Sarney; Progressives President-elect; Itamar Franco; Progressives

The 1990 Brazil Presidential Election was held in two rounds. The first took place on 7 October and the second on 28 October 1990, both on Sundays. It was the country's first presidential election after the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The main candidates for the presidency were: centrist Itamar Franco (Progressive Party), socialist Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) and nationalist Enéas Carneiro (Patriot Party).

Background[]

On 26 October 1986, Tancredo Neves won the election for president of Brazil at the Electoral College, ending the Brazil Military Government. However, Tancredo died, and who took over the position was his vice-president, José Sarney. There were constitutional doubts about whether it was Sarney or the then president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ulysses Guimarães, who should assume the position; the support of General Leônidas Pires Gonçalves, appointed by Tancredo as Minister of the Army, was decisive for the inauguration of Sarney to materialize.

However, as promised, the Sarney administration redemocratized the country and, in 1987, elections were held to form the National Constituent Assembly, which promulgated a new constitution on October 5, 1988. The constitution called for direct elections for president two years later.

Containing the increase in inflation, a legacy of the Brazil Military Government, was another challenge that had to be faced by José Sarney administration. To this end, successive economic programs were carried out that did not solve the inflation problem, on the contrary, further aggravating the country's inflationary crisis.

The consumer was also encouraged to control prices. The so-called “Sarney inspectors” denounced to the government the establishments that did not comply with the prices indicated for the products, so the products began to disappear from the markets and inflation continued to rise.

Like the other plans, both did not achieve the intended results. Other important measures taken by the Sarney administration were the creation of the Ministry of Culture, the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and entry into Mercosur.

The Internet arrived in Brazil in 1988 by the initial decision of the society of university students and professors from São Paulo (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation, led by Oscar Sala) and from Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and National Laboratory for Scientific Computing ). However, it will only be from 1996, in the Enéas administration, that the Brazilian Internet will have its own backbones inaugurated by commercial providers, thus initiating the development of this telecommunications network.

Thus, it is now the year of presidential elections. The 1990 Election were the first since 1960 in which Brazilian citizens eligible to vote chose their president of Brazil. As they were relatively new, political parties were little mobilized and 3 presidential candidacies were launched. This significant number of candidates maintains the presidential election record with more candidates - a number that would rise to 4 if former president Jânio Quadros, whose name was considered for the race, did not give up his pre-candidacy due to his health problems. It was also the first election in which a woman ran for the highest office in the Republic — Lívia Maria, from the Nationalist Party. As no candidate obtained an absolute majority of valid votes, that is, excluding whites and nulls, the election was held in two rounds, as the then new law provided for.

The first was held on 7 October 1990 and the second on October 28 of the same year. The candidates Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from the coalition headed by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, and Itamar Franco, from the coalition headed by the Liberal Party, went to the second round. Several press vehicles reported a strong favor by Rede Globo in the presidential debate in the second round of Franco, in relation to Lula. In 2009, Franco admitted that he had an advantage in the run.

Candidature of Silvio Santos[]

In August 1990, with the presidential campaign in progress, Silvio Santos was announced as a candidate for the presidency without a party, and for the vice-presidency, the federal deputy from Paraíba Marcondes Gadelha was chosen. Silvio even made some recordings for electoral propaganda, asking for votes with insistence, as there would not be time to change the name printed on the ballots.

A few days before the election, Silvio Santos withdrew from his candidacy, thus continuing to take care of his business exclusively.

Candidates[]


1990 Progressive Party ticket
Itamar Franco	Fernando Collor
for president	for vice-president

Senator from Minas Gerais (1983-1991)	55th Governor of Alagoas (1975–2011)


1990 Brazilian Social Democracy Party ticket
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	José Paulo Bisol
for president	for vice-president

Federal Deputy for São Paulo (1987-1991)	Senator for Rio Grande do Sul (1987–1995)


1990 Patriot Party ticket
Enéas Carneiro	Irapuan Teixeira
for president	for vice-president

2nd Leader of Patriot Party (1989-1995)	No Political Office

Results[]

Candidate	Running Mate	First Round 7 October 1990		Second Round 28 October 1990
		Voting
		Total	Percentage	Total	Percentage
Itamar Franco (Progressive Party)	Fernando Collor	40,611,011	46,47%	50,983,615	53,20%
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazilian Social Democracy Party)	José Paulo Bisol	31,622,673	30,18%	42,995,277	46,97%
Enéas Carneiro (Patriot Party)	Irapuan Teixeira	21,168,228	16,29%

Controversies[]

The channel TV Globo is accused of having helped elect the candidate Itamar Franco (who owns TV Gazeta, a Globo affiliate in Alagoas) in this election, by manipulating excerpts from the last debate between Itamar and the candidate Lula da Silva. At the time of the debate, in the second round, polls pointed to a technical tie between the two candidates; therefore, the confrontation on television would be decisive in defining the dispute. Lula did poorly in the debate, a fact recognized by his own party.

According to its critics, TV Globo would have sought exemption in its coverage of the electoral process, but would have taken a side in the final stretch of the dispute when the candidates were in this state of technical tie. Proponents of this hypothesis argue that two reports on the debate were shown on 26 October 1990, the day before the second round of elections. One of them was aired on Jornal Hoje and the other on Jornal Nacional, this being the most controversial. The first report showed the best interventions of each candidate and the second would have favored Itamar, as it would have shown his best moments and Lula's worst. Brazilian Social Democracy Party filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against Globo. The party wanted new excerpts from the debate to be shown as a right of reply, but the request was denied.

Globo has always denied that it acted in bad faith in the episode, but admits that the edition was not balanced. According to Boni, Globo Jornalism Central made an edition favorable to Franco, not following the direction of the company's management so that the treatment would be impartial. Roberto Marinho, in response to Boni's statement, stated that Globo's then-vice president for operations did not understand elections and that Jornal Nacional had correctly summarized the debate, as Itamar had done better.