Before his campaign, Bolsonaro desired that the senator Magno Malta (from the Party of Republic) or Augusto Heleno,(from the Progressive Republican Party) become the vice-president in his slate, but their parties did not allow the two of them to compete together. During his campaign, Bolsonaro has praised the two-decade (1964-1985)
military dictatorship in Brazil and has praised foreign
autocrats such as
Alberto Fujimori of
Peru and
Augusto Pinochet of
Chile. Bolsonaro has promised to give police permission to shoot first and ask questions later. His platform also promotes liberalizing gun laws and repressive tactics against urban criminality and drug trafficking, along with the advocation of rolling back affirmative action for black-Brazilians and reversing legislation which increases sentences for murdering women because of their gender (
femicide). Despite earlier calls for massive policy shifts in environmentalism, Bolsonaro backed away from calls to pull Brazil out of the
Paris Agreements, and the elimination of Brazil's Environmental Ministry. However he told international non-profit groups such as the
World Wildlife Fund, that he would not allow their agendas in Brazil, strongly protested against lands reserved for indigenous tribes, and plans to expand
nuclear and
hydroelectric power into the
Amazon. Some supporters of Bolsonaro have compared him to
US President Donald Trump, and believe that he, like Trump, will bring the radical change that they feel is needed in response to the "lawlessness" of Brazil, with many nicknaming Bolsonaro "the legend."
Steve Bannon (chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 presidential bid) has advised Bolsonaro's campaign.
Social media Social media made a large impact on Bolsonaro's campaign and at the time of the election he had over 4.3 million followers and many support pages on Facebook along with over 400 thousand followers on Instagram, making him one of the candidates with the largest support on social media. During the election Bolsonaro faced allegations that some of his important financial supporters illegally used WhatsApp as means to spread fake news about his opponent Haddad, prompting the company to ban thousands of active accounts during the election period. His supporters have been credited as being extremely active on social media and disseminate most content throughout WhatsApp as almost 93% of them claim to have accounts where almost 43% are politically active in the App.
Voter Demographic Bolsonaro's supporters were primarily aged between 16 and 34 years old at about 60% of his voters, almost 30% of which were 24 years old or younger.
Endorsements Polls As of late September, Bolsonaro led the polls with 28% of polled voters, with an Ibope poll (22-24 September) stating that 36% of men surveyed said they would vote for him, while only 18% of women backing his policies. The day before the election, polls gave Bolsonaro an 8-10% advantage over
Fernando Haddad. == Attack during campaign event ==