By Luciana Magalhaes and Lisandra Paraguassu
SALVADOR, Brazil, Oct 31 (Reuters) – When buses in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador inexplicably stopped running last Sunday, history teacher Martins Mafra grabbed his car keys and set off to pick up stranded voters across town.
Mafra’s efforts in Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, were part of a massive get-out-the-vote drive across Brazil that helped power leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to an unprecedented fourth term.
Lula supporters, shocked by right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s first-round lead, quickly mobilized as the prospect sank in that the Bolsonaro clan could return to power. They used innovative social media initiatives, free taxi rides and grassroots campaigning to secure the incumbent president over 10 million more votes in the runoff.
“I’m a father, and I work in education, so this was an opportunity to teach and show that we can make a difference,” said Mafra, who offered rides to supporters of all stripes. “It’s one thing to stay home complaining about city hall or posting videos online; it’s another thing to get up, walk out the door, and actually do something.”
Bolsonaro, son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, fled this week to the US, where he declared himself the legitimate “leader” of Brazil, questioning the credibility of Lula’s 10 million-vote leap.
Bolsonaro also questioned a two-hour voting extension, requested by Lula’s campaign and granted by a Lula-appointed Supreme Court justice, due to the out-of-service buses in Bahia. Bolsonaro’s campaign also sought an extension due to rains in conservative-leaning southern states, and the extension had little bearing on the result, the federal electoral court said.
LULA STRONGHOLD
Bahia, a populous Lula stronghold, was the state with the highest fall in abstention rates between both rounds, with nearly 400,000 more people voting in the runoff.
Almost a quarter of those additional voters came from Salvador, a city of over 2.5 million people where Lula won 73% of runoff votes.
Salvador resident Gabriel Mercury, 41, son of Brazilian pop star Daniela Mercury, was one of those who helped orchestrate the turnaround.
The Lula voter watched with concern as the leftist underperformed in the first round, and decided to do something about it. He began by inviting undecided voters to have coffee with him and talk politics. Later, he offered cash rewards of up to 2,400 reais ($445.67) to anyone who could name a single Bolsonaro legislative proposal that had benefited workers.
Nobody took him up on the offer.
LULA OVERHAULS CAMPAIGN
After the underwhelming first round, Lula’s team sought to reboot a campaign marred by infighting, mixed messaging and the complacency of incumbency, aides said.
Aware that no presidential candidate had ever been elected after trailing in the initial vote, the 81-year-old Lula bought his first ever smartphone to reach Brazilians on the platforms that increasingly shape Brazil’s political debate.
Meanwhile, lawmaker Andre Janones, who helped Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, rapidly expanded a WhatsApp channel he called “Lula’s Army.”
By instructing followers to recruit friends and amplify Lula content online, he grew the channel from roughly 50,000 people ahead of the first round to over 10 million by the runoff.
Dharma political risk consultant Creomar de Souza said Lula’s team, and particularly Janones, successfully pounced on missteps by Bolsonaro to convince voters he would threaten Brazil’s democracy, reverse social advances and slash welfare payments on which millions of Brazilians depend.
As the runoff approached, polls showed Lula closing the gap on Bolsonaro. By election day, they were tied.
In Salvador, Mercury began to believe Lula could win. Then, early on Sunday, Salvador’s bus network ground to a halt.
BUS FIASCO
In Brazil, public authorities are required to provide free public transport on election day.
But reports from across Salvador, where Mayor Bruno Reis supported Bolsonaro, suggested many buses were not running.
Inspectors from the Bahia consumer protection agency found 944 buses idling in Salvador depots. Jaime Barreiros Neto, the Bahia electoral court’s judicial analyst, estimated at least 30% of the fleet was not operating.
Reis blamed the outage on Lula stickers that had been placed on buses in violation of electoral rules. As soon as city hall realized sticker removal efforts were causing a bottleneck, it immediately ordered the fleet released, he said in a press conference on Sunday.
Reis told Reuters he supported Bolsonaro in the runoff in accordance with his party, União Brasil. He denied detaining public transport or hindering voter mobility, saying the stickering of the buses held up the fleet.
Bahia’s electoral court ordered the arrest of Salvador’s transportation chief, Pablo Souza, over the absent buses. It revoked the order once voting had ended the following day, but demanded a probe into the incident.
Souza, who was in Paris on an official visit during the day of the vote, denied wrongdoing. He told Reuters the number of buses was the same as during the first round, and in line with electoral regulations.
MASS MOBILIZATIONS
As news of idling buses rippled through Salvador, Mercury and five friends asked their social media followers to drive people to voting stations. Some people got behind the wheel; others donated to cover fuel costs. Mercury estimated that his team moved around 600 voters on election day.
“Politics isn’t just institutional politics,” he said. “We make politics through our actions.”
Uber drivers also stepped up, with thousands offering free rides worth up to 50 reais ($9.28) throughout the day, said Adriano de Jesus Braga dos Santos, an Uber driver and content creator, who personally offered 36 rides to passengers.
Nicole Soares, 18, waited 40 minutes for a bus, but never considered giving up. “I had the right to vote,” she said, casting her ballot for Lula.
Some residents were still unable to vote.
Grecia de Jesus Nunes, a 54-year-old street vendor, said only two buses passed her hotdog stand between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. No buses were available during her brief break, and when volunteer drivers eventually reached her, she could no longer leave work.
Though unable to vote, Nunes rejoiced at Lula’s victory.
“My life is Lula,” she said. “I am Lula until I die.”
($1 = 5.3851 reais)
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and David Gregorio)
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