(Reuters) – Far-right Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro vowed yesterday to appoint non-partisan ministers, breaking with the tradition of building cabinets through coalitions, as part of his bid to tackle graft in Latin America’s largest economy.
Bolsonaro, a conservative congressman favoured by financial markets, fell just short of an outright majority in Sunday’s vote. He will face leftist Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor, in a second round ballot on Oct. 28.
With a commanding lead in the first round – he won 46 percent of the vote to Haddad’s 29 percent – and a tidal wave of support lifting his congressional allies, Bolsonaro says he has the capital to fundamentally change the political process.
That would start with a more technocratic cabinet, potentially led by another conservative congressman, Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro said in a video posted on social media with Lorenzoni by his side.
“Once we get there, let’s build a team of ministers committed to the future of Brazil and not political and partisan interests,” Bolsonaro said. “And who knows, Onyx here as chief-of-staff in Brasilia, okay?”
The 63-year-old former army captain has said he would like to appoint several generals to cabinet posts in an effort to depoliticize senior government roles and root out corruption schemes exposed by huge graft investigations in recent years.
Without senior cabinet posts to secure allied parties, however, the right-wing firebrand could struggle to keep a governing coalition together in a more fragmented Congress that will be divided between 30 parties next year.
Bolsonaro is also looking to put business leaders in government roles, a newspaper reported yesterday, including a possible invitation to the head of global markets at Santander Brasil SA to lead the central bank if current governor Ilan Goldfajn declines to stay on.
Roberto Campos Neto, who also runs the trading desk of Santander Brasil, is one of several executives being considered to run ministries and state enterprises, Folha reported without saying how it obtained the information.
The newspaper also reported that Alexandre Bettamio, chief executive for Latin America at Bank of America Corp, could take over as CEO of state-run lender Banco do Brasil SA.
The Bolsonaro campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Campos Neto nor Bettamio could be immediately reached for comment.
Haddad, in a radio interview, would not reveal who he is considering for his cabinet if he wins the second-round vote, but he said the finance minister would “not be a banker.”
Brazil emerged last year from its deepest economic recession in decades, which wiped out much of the prosperity generated during the previous decade when the country was a darling of emerging market investors.
