DISCLAIMER: I make no pretensions of being impartial, so do your research and don't believe me blindly!
Alright kiddos, it's time to necro this thread. Why? Because it's election time for Brasil! (Also Venezuela is in the shitter.)
What is the background for this election? Well, let's take it one-by-one:
-Economic crisis hit the country
-Dilma Rousseff refused to play the corruption game with Congress (the actual rulers of the country)
-So they decided to wreck the country further, pin it on her, and impeach her on a bullshit excuse.
-Once she was impeached they immediately legalized what they impeached her for and put her VP, Michel Temer, in her place.
-Turns out the Vampire is actually a horrible ruler, to no one's surprise.
-Also reactionaries are on the rise.
-Also also Venezuelans are flooding into the country from the north and tensions are on the rise in Roraima.
-Oh, and ex-President Lula was arrested not because of anything he actually did (though he is corrupt), but to take him out of the election since he expressed his interest in running.
So, all in all: a lovely time for elections!
But who are the contenders? Well, judges have decided that Lula cannot run, so instead we have these fine, fine folks (with handy wikipedia links!):
Álvaro Dias: a neoliberal back by PODE (Podemos / "We Can"). His running mate is
Paulo Rabello de Castro, an economist from the PSC (Partido Social Cristão / "Social Christian Party") who thinks neoliberalism is totally a christian thing.
Cabo [Corporal] Daciolo: former military firefighter and current fascist is the candidate for the PATRI (Patriota / "Patriot") party. He's notable only for spouting in a debate that the leftists planned to create URSAL if they won. What is URSAL? Well, nobody knew until he explained that it is Union of Socialist Republics of Latin America, of course! His VP is Suelene Balduino from the same party, who is so notable she doesn't even have a wiki page in portuguese.
Ciro Gomes: backed by the PDT (Partido Democrata Trabalhista / "Democrat Labour Party"), he was actually pretty popular when candidates were announcing their intent to run. This dropped, hard, when he revealed his VP:
Kátia Abreu, who is a notorious oligarch whose plantations are staffed by debt slaves. Ciro's political leaning is left, but still close to the centre.
Geraldo Alckmin: this more conservative neoliberal is actually a decent pick (and I do greatly dislike neolibs), running for PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira / "Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy") with his running mate as
Ana Amélia Lemos from PP (Partido Progressista / "Progressive Party")
Guilherme Boulos: Something of an outsider, Boulos made his name as the leader o f the MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto / "Homeless Workers Movement") and is considered one of the top leftist picks around. He is the candidate of PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade / "Socialism and Liberty Party"), same party as his running mate
Sônia Guajaja, notable for being the leader of amerindian activism groups.
Henrique Meirelles: formerly an executive for various banking institutions, he's got some weight in financial circles. Also rich as fuck. Also the candidate of MDB (Movimento Democrático Brasileiro / "Brazilian Democratic Movement"), the hegemonic party in congress, Temer's party and also the one with the biggest and strongest oligarchs. Also from MD is his VP,
Germano Rigotto. Pretty much the non-reactionary, non-neoliberal conservative pick.
Jair Bolsonaro: Oh boy. This asshole. A strong reactionary fascist like Cabo Daciolo, except he's rich, had time to get entrenched in politics despite being utterly despised by other politicians, and also pretty much every poltically incorrect opinion you can imagine rolled into a single person. He bases his campaign on: stopping teaching kids to accept non-heterosexual sexualities ("They are corrupting our children! But I totally respects people's option to be gay, totally."), not being in any (known) corruption scandals (not because of any merit on his part, the other corrupt fucks just hate him that much), and cutting all funding to human rights stuff because "bandits need to be shot, not coddled". His party is PSL (Partido Social-Liberal / "Partido Social-Liberal") whose name is suspiciously like that of some other far-right historical party of certain historical notoriety. His VP is
General Hamilton Mourão, from PRTB (Partido Renovador Trabalhista Brasileiro / "Brazilian Renewing Labour Party" (translation didn't turn out very well here)), who was not only openly racist in live tv, but actually thinks a new coup should happen.
João Amoedo: Is a banker and I get the feeling he wants to be a less-orange Trump. He's going with NOVO (Partido Novo / "New Party") and his running mate is Christian Lohbauer also from NOVO who has no wiki page so...
João Goulart Filho: from PPL (Partido Pátria Livre / "Free Fatherland Party"), is trying to ride on his deceased dad's reputation, given how João Goulart sr. was the last president before the military coup and was actually pretty ok before being deposed and assassinated. His running mate is Léo Alves also from PPL.
José Maria Eymael: Not a lot to say about him, to be honest. Only thing that elevates him from being generic is that he's the evangelical candidate and as such shares views with his neopentescopal base. His party is DC (Democracia Cristã / "Christian Democracy") whose name also pretty much described him. VP is Helvio Costa also from DC.
Fernando Haddad: is the candidate for PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores / "Workers' Party") since Lula is out. He'll be pretty much a stand-in for the ex-president. More interesting is his running mate
Manuela d'Ávila from PCdoB (Partido Comunista do Brasil / "Comunist Party of Brasil"), who had previously indicated she wanted to be president herself.
Marina Silva: backed by REDE (Rede Sustentabilidade / "Sustainability Network") is an environmentalist, but otherwise a centrist. Notable for not having strong opinions outside environmental matters. It's kind of notorious, actually. Her VP is
Eduardo Jorge from PV (Partido Verde / "Green Party") who... is also an environmentalist.
Finally we have Vera Lúcia who doesn't have a page. She, and her running mate Hertz Dias, are from PSTU (Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado / "Unified Workers' Socialist Party"), a party noted for its strong, some might say radical, syndicalist and fierce anticapitalist stances.
Whew, that was a pretty long write. Frankly, I am not too worried that most of the really bad ones in this list can actually do any more damage than Temer to the country because Congress is the actual ruler of Brasil, as proven with ex-president Dilma. What I'm worried about is the boost to reactionary morale that's going to happen regardless of Bolsonaro winning or not (which is unlikely, because polls indicate that roughly 40% of the population will absolutely never vote him regardless of opponent).