Health Ministry supports postponing 2020 elections

Brazil’s Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta argued that the country’s 2020 municipal elections, scheduled for October, should be postponed. “This election will be a tragedy,” he said, during a conference call with city mayors to discuss actions to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Brazil.

The ministry voiced concerns that incumbents might choose strategies without public health in mind, geared only toward their own re-election. And that challengers might boycott efforts in order to erode public support for current administrations.

Senator Major Olímpio, the whip for the Social Liberal Party, declared on a live Facebook broadcast that he is gathering co-sponsors among his peers for a constitutional amendment that would cancel the 2020 elections — pushing them to 2022, when the country will vote for governors, members of Congress, state lawmakers, and the president. 

Revenue

Mr. Mandetta told mayors that the federal government will decentralize resources to be used for fighting the pandemic, adding that efforts must be coordinated, to avoid having “one undermining the other.”

• #elections