Cash-strapped fight against Brazil’s political corruption

From a bunker-like studio deep in the heart of Brazil, Márlon Reis is warning voters to be on the lookout.

Recording his latest TV campaign slot little more than two weeks before Brazil's general election, the gubernatorial candidate calls on everyone to be on their guard against that old vice in Tocantins politics – rampant vote buying. "If we repeat the manner in which we vote, we will repeat the manner in which we are governed," he tells the camera.

And that manner is corruptly. Not since 2006 has a governor elected to run this rural state on the edge of the Amazon managed to see out their mandate. Since then they have all been toppled by a series of corruption scandals while the state’s public services have been reduced to penury. The night before, Brazil’s most-watched news programme showed footage of rats having the run of one of the state’s hospitals.

Many politicians in Brazil claim to be against such corruption but few have done more to tackle it than Reis. A 48-year-old federal judge, he is the founder of the Movement to Combat Electoral Corruption and author of Brazil’s so-called “clean slate” initiative. This bans anyone convicted of a crime from running for office and has seen almost 200 candidates barred from this year’s elections with hundreds more opting not to run because they knew they would fall foul of the law.

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The most prominent politician to do so is former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ironically the man who signed it into law in 2010.

Despite leading all opinion polls, he was barred from seeking the presidency for a sixth time because of his corruption conviction last year. “I never imagined that happening and I bet neither did Lula,” says Reis.

Honesty pledge

This alone would make Reis an influential figure in the election even if he was not running himself. But after mobilising civil society to force a reluctant congress into approving his initiative, he has now returned to his home state to run for governor as the candidate of the Sustainability Network party of environmentalist Marina Silva.

At the heart of his programme is a pledge to govern honestly which he says will bring an improvement in the lives of ordinary people. Reis estimates over a quarter of the Tocantins state budget is embezzled each year. “Money going into the pockets of corrupt politicians is money taken from schools, hospitals and the police” is one of his mantras.

Reis's two main rivals, incumbent Mauro Carlesse and Carlos Amastha, the former mayor of the state capital Palmas, represent the old way of doing politics. Both have fortunes of obscure origins and face dozens of investigations into alleged wrongdoing. Part of Reis's pitch is that he is the only candidate for governor with any chance of completing his term as his rivals face removal from office once investigators catch up with them.

In a country in which voters consistently say they are furious with corruption and the nefarious impact it has on public services, Reis should be a shoo-in considering the evidence of systematic wrongdoing involving his opponents. But instead he is trailing a distant third to Carlesse and Amastha, themselves little more than front men for the two families that have controlled power in Tocantins since the state was created in 1988.

Reis blames this apparent contradiction on a lack of political awareness among much of the population. Across Tocantins, everyone says they are aware of vote-buying though no one will admit to selling their own. "You see people giving out about corruption in Brasília but then agree to sell their vote to a candidate here in Tocantins," he notes. Many poor and sparsely populated Brazilian states like Tocantins remain dominated by local oligarchs who use power to create personal wealth which in turn allows them to buy more power, often literally.

Between them Carlesse and Amastha will spend more than €1 million on their campaigns in a state with a population of just 1.5 million people.

“And that is what they declare. Then you have to consider their illicit spending,” adds Reis, who has raised less than €60,000 for his campaign.

Despite this huge disadvantage, his team is optimistic. The immediate goal is to place in the top two in the first round of voting on October 7th. That would see Reis advance to a run-off three weeks later. "And if we reach the second round we have every chance of winning," says adviser Ricardo Abalem at the campaign's morning meeting to plan out the day.

'We cannot let divisions at the national level impede our efforts to rescue Tocantins'

Hospital rats

That confidence is based on the anti-incumbency mood gripping an electorate weary of graft, scandals and rats in hospitals. Hours after recording his campaign spot, Reis received the endorsement of an influential local union federation which, fed up after a litany of unfulfilled promises, has broken with governor Carlesse’s administration.

This wave of political discontent has been disruptive. At the national level, it has fuelled the rise of far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro who sells himself as the scourge of Brazil's traditional political class. Reis has no time for the retired army captain, seeing him as a false prophet who will eventually be rejected by the electorate.

But it is a measure of the complexity of Brazilian politics, and how the national race can provide a false sense of clarity to realities at the state level, that Reis’s candidacy in Tocantins is being backed by both the conservative party of Bolsonaro’s running mate and Lula’s Workers Party, even as they both compete against Marina Silva in the presidential race.

While local Workers Party militants see no contradiction between their demand for Lula’s release from jail and supporting Reis for governor, their party’s backing of his campaign has led opponents to insinuate that Reis is allied with those immersed in corruption in Brasília, contradicting his own anti-graft message.

But he is firm in drawing a distinction between national and state politics. “We cannot let divisions at the national level impede our efforts to rescue Tocantins,” he says. “I am proud to say everyone in my coalition is ‘clean slate’ and has played no role in bringing our state to its current sorry condition. The Workers Party in Tocantins is honest.”

The challenge in rescuing the state from its current political masters is made clear the next day on a swing through the rural interior. On a visit to the local hospital in the small town of Colinas, he is told staff are telling patients to buy their own medicines because they lack the funds to provide them. He explains to those waiting for treatment why a vote for him is a vote for better healthcare. But they are used to candidates promising the earth at election time, and his reception is somewhere between suspicious and apathetic.

Rural interior

While his well-funded rivals have the use of private planes and helicopters for getting around a territory three times the size of Ireland, Reis must spend hours in a pick-up truck travelling across the sparsely populated region in order to connect with voters like those at the hospital. This means time as well as finance works against him.

But the rural interior is a crucial arena for his chances. While Reis’s anti-corruption message resonates deeply among the sizeable middle class in the state capital Palmas, the level of politicisation among the rural poor is lower. Come election time many, despairing of politicians ever living up to their campaign pledges, just sell their vote for some small immediate benefit. Many others vote for deeply entrenched incumbents out of fear of losing their public sector jobs, Tocantins’ main source of employment.

'Here whoever pays for a poll tops it'

Part of the challenge Reis faces is trying to explain why such practices need to end if governance in the state is to improve. In the town of Arapoema, almost 400k from Palmas, Reis meets a small delegation representing 55 families of landless peasants.

Their leader, Francinalda da Luz, is impressed with his understanding of the land issue but wants to know how can she be sure his office door will be open to them if Reis wins. “I am not buying your vote. I am asking for it,” he tells her. “Someone who buys your vote does not have to bother with you again as they have paid for your support. I am not paying for it and so I will be in your debt and therefore always in your corner.” Pleased with what she hears Luz says she will be recommending that her people back him.

Later there is a walkabout around Arapoema’s town centre. The crowd is a few dozen strong and noisy, and a cacophony of scooter horns and firecrackers threatens to drown out his campaign jingle which is blaring from a car following the crowd. But the lively reception is not what has Reis’ old friend and campaign staffer Agnaldo Quintinó so thrilled. “It is the fact no one has been paid to be here. No other candidate could get a turnout like this without paying for it,” he explains.

Groggy nation

Whether such enthusiasm will be enough to topple the oligarchy that has held the state captive in the three decades since its foundation remains to be seen. But Reis says, win or lose, his campaign just marks the beginning of a longer process that will eventually transform Brazil: “We are like someone who just woke up and is still groggy after a long night’s sleep. As a nation we still don’t know what decisions to make but our eyes are beginning to open. I have no doubt about this.”

After the walkabout, it is quickly into the pick-up again. There is another meeting to attend back in Colinas then the long drive to Palmas and a few hours’ sleep before Saturday’s campaign commitments start.

Reis had earlier in the day mused about getting an overnight bus to Imperatriz, the city in the neighbouring state of Maranhão where he worked as a federal judge before plunging into politics. His wife is still to move from there with their younger children. Earlier in the day when his youngest daughter rang him, he sounded lonely.

But thoughts of making the long bus journey further north to see his family even for one day must eventually be put aside. His adviser, Quintinó, has been fielding requests from allies for the candidate’s presence at various rallies and meetings over the weekend. With the cash-strapped campaign fighting against the odds, it cannot turn these down.

So instead of pushing on north, Reis heads back south with his team. As it races through the night the mood in the pick-up is relaxed and jokes are being cracked. Not even the latest opinion poll showing him trailing a distant third to Carlesse and Amastha can dampen the mood.

“Here whoever pays for a poll tops it,” Reis explains. “We could commission one that would put us in first place. We wouldn’t – but even if we wanted to we haven’t got the money for it.”

Brazil’s elections

When
Brazilians go to the polls to elect a new president on October 7th. If no-one wins an outright majority then a run-off round between the two best placed candidates will be held on October 28th.

The Frontrunners
Far-right former army officer Jair Bolsonaro leads in all opinion polls but these show him falling well short of an outright majority. His closest rival is former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party, who only entered the race because his party's leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was barred from running because of a corruption conviction.

The Rest
Of the remaining 11 presidential candidates, three retain an outside chance of forcing their way into a run-off: environmentalist Marina Silva, left-populist Ciro Gomes and markets favourite Geraldo Alckmin.

Elsewhere
Voters will also elect a new lower house of congress, 54 of the 81 seats in the senate and new governors and legislative assemblies for the 26 states and the federal district where the capital Brasília is located.

Electorate
There are 147.3 million voters in the world's fourth largest democracy but thanks to an electronic voting system results should be declared within a few hours of polls closing.