ASSESSMENTS

In Brazil, Any Anti-Corruption Mandate Will Meet Political Obstacles

Oct 26, 2018 | 06:15 GMT

A picture showing Brazilians rallying against far-right populist presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo on Oct. 20.

Brazilians rally against far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo on Oct. 20. Bolsonaro is leading his opponent, leftist Fernando Haddad, in the polls. Both candidates promise to fight corruption if elected president on Oct. 28, but various obstacles will shape the next administration's anti-corruption policy.

(NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The next Brazilian administration will come to power with a mandate to deepen anti-corruption probes and deliver greater results against perceived graft.
  • Brazil's new government will have two general choices at its disposal: create institutions to more effectively detect and deal with corruption, or work within the existing institutions to indirectly target corruption through legislative amendments, including enacting stricter criminal penalties.
  • Obtaining funding to support extensive institutional reforms, balancing anti-corruption pursuits against competing political priorities, negotiating for legislative change with Brazil's highly fragmented National Congress and other bureaucratic obstacles will shape the next administration's anti-corruption policy.

Brazil's right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro appears ready to ride an anti-corruption wave into power. Bolsonaro came only four points short of winning the presidency outright on Oct. 7. He now faces leftist Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad, who received 29 percent of the first-round vote, in an Oct. 28 runoff. Polling shows Bolsonaro comfortably ahead. A scandal at Brazil's state oil company Petrobras in 2014 swept aside many potential candidates who otherwise would have posed a significant challenge to Bolsonaro, and his populist promises to be tougher on corruption than his Workers' Party predecessors have been are resonating with voters, despite the relatively vague anti-corruption platform he has put forward....

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