Brazil’s anti-gay presidential candidate wins first round of elections
Jair Bolsonaro received 46 per cent of the votes over the weekend
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Brazil’s far-right, anti-gay presidential candidate has won the first round of the elections.
The Brazilian community took to the voting polls over the weekend and the leader of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) Jair Bolsonaro won 46 per cent of the votes compared to his left-wing opponent, Fernando Haddad, who only secured 29 per cent.
As Bolsonaro didn’t receive 50 per cent of the votes, he will face Haddad in the second round of elections at the end of the month.
In his victory speech, broadcast live on Facebook and uploaded on to Twitter, he said Brazilians could take the path of “prosperity, liberty. family, on God’s side” or the path of Venezuela.
Bolsonaro has made numerous homophobic and racist comments and has been described as Brazil’s Donald Trump.
During an interview with TIME magazine last month, Bolsonaro stood by a previous statement in which he claimed he would attack two men if he saw them kissing in the street.
Back in 2015, Bolsonaro said that blood transfusion patients should be allowed to reject blood if it came from a gay person and during a 2011 interview with Playboy, Bolsonaro said he’d be incapable of loving a gay son and would prefer that son to “die in an accident”.