A Legacy Rejected?

On the eve of last week's nationwide elections in Brazil, left-wing politicians hopefully predicted that the late President Getulio Vargas' bitter, demagogic suicide letter (TIME, Sept. 6) would bring them a clear-cut victory. But as the returns mounted up, it seemed likely that the No. 1 victor would be a man who was not even a candidate: Vargas' successor, Moderate Conservative President Joao Cafe Filho, who stood aloof from the pre-election politicking even though the health of his administration was clearly at stake.

Cafe Filho must have a right-and-center majority in Congress to carry out his middle-of-the-road reform program for the remaining 15 months of his term. At week's end, it appeared that--despite Getulio Vargas' emotional farewell ("To the wrath of my enemies I leave the legacy of my death")--the voters had given Cafe Filho what he needed.

The first sign that the people of Brazil were not especially wrought up by Vargas' dramatic exit was the small turnout. Even in Rio, where talking politics is a year-round pastime, only two-thirds of the registered voters cast ballots, and after the polls closed unused ballots littered the streets. In some cities the turnout ran as low as 40%.

Under Brazil's archaic voting system, each ballot is sealed in a separate envelope at the polling place; tellers at the central counting stations must verify each envelope, open it by hand, and record the choices. There was a lot of recording to do: up for election were all 327 House of Deputies seats, two-thirds of the 60 Senate's seats, eleven out of 20 state governorships, and many lesser offices. In Rio's Maracana Stadium last week, 60 groups of election clerks counted away amid milling onlookers, nervous candidates, Coca-Cola vendors and party observers keeping a partisan eye on the counting. Now and then election officials brought in new canvas sacks full of ballots from guarded, iron-barred storerooms.

Understandably, counting was slow. At week's end, many candidates were still not sure whether they had won or lost. But the tallying was far enough along to show that Vargas' vengeful legacy had failed to kindle a political bonfire. In Rio, Vargas' son Luthero won a House of Deputies seat; but so did Tribuna da Imprensa Editor Carlos Lacerda, the late President's fiercest newspaper critic. In Vargas' home state of Rio Grande do Sul, at week's end, the hand-picked president of the Vargas-created Labor Party, Joao Goulart, was a poor third in his Senate race; the Labor Party candidate for governor was running second. And in the state of Pernambuco, Vargas' former Agriculture Minister, Joao Cleofas, was trailing for the governorship.

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