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Brazil's Federal Election Board (TSE) announced this Friday, August 18, a list of the 19,042 Brazilians running for an elective post in the October 1st national election.
That day Brazilians will choose from president to district deputies to fill up vacant seats throughout the country. They will be electing 513 federal deputies, 1.059 state and district deputies, 27 senators, 27 governors and a president. The majority of them, 1,902 (9.8%), are politicians with a mandate trying their luck at another term or at another post. Those seeking reelection start with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and also include senators, House representatives, governors, and assemblymen. Lawyers come in second with 1,438 of them looking for a place under an elective post umbrella. Then we have businessmen (1,396) and dealers (1.387). Besides a new president Brazilians will also be choosing 27 senator and 27 governors as well as 513 House representatives and 1,059 state and district deputies. The candidates list is still not completely finished. This will happen only on August 23, the deadline imposed to the electoral boards to define all candidacies. Since registration for candidates started on July 5, 368 requests were denied, 197 candidates changed their mind about running and five died. The candidate appear in the TSE roster according to the profession they chose to list in their application form. They might have more than one career. There are, for example two senators running for the presidency, Heloísa Helena and Cristovam Buarque. But only Helena mentioned her profession as senator. Buarque presents himself as college teacher. The other presidential hopefuls are President Lula, medical doctor Geraldo Alckmin, lawyer and businessman José Maria Eymael, businessman Luciano Bivar, political scientist Ana Maria Rangel, and journalist and editor Rui Costa Pepper. The TSE didn't accept the candidacies of Rangel and Pepper, but they still have a chance to reverse this decision. Among those 232 Brazilians running for the senate, 196 are men and 36 women. Law is the most common profession among them. Among the men 20 are lawyers while there are four female lawyers too. The second most common profession is businessman (14) among the male candidates and public servant (3) among the female ones. 11 senators are trying reelection while nine House representatives are looking for a senate seat. Five councilmen also decided to fly higher in their political career trying to get a coveted place in the Senate. Senate hopefuls still include among others two bakers, a priest, a retired military man, a locksmith and a bus ticket seller. For the House there are 5.480 candidates: 4,793 men and 687 women. Once again lawyers (560) are the most common of the professionals followed by businessmen (422). Then you have the career politicians, housewives (18), tailors (4), maids (2), a waitress, a fisher woman and a priestess. Many others declare being teachers, doctors, students, policemen, engineers, shopkeepers and retired. From 212 candidates to governor, 185 are men and 27 women. Lawyers (22) are again the most common career among the men. Amongst women teachers (4) come first. Then you have salesmen, car mechanics, and mailmen. There are 12.779 candidates competing for an Assembly seat. 10.967 of them are men and 1.812 women. This time, merchants (920) is the number one career among men, followed by businessmen (823), lawyers (676), council men (583), deputies (518) and doctors (484). But they also include singers (26), fishermen (12), athletes (10), private detectives (4) and even two clowns. There are also an astrologer, a scavenger and grave-digger trying to start a political career.
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