1955 Brazilian presidential election

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President

Candidate Juscelino Kubitschek Juarez Távora Party PSD UDN Popular vote 3,077,411 2,610,462 Percentage 35.68% 30.27%   Candidate Adhemar de Barros Plínio Salgado Party PSP PRP Popular vote 2,222,725 714,379 Percentage 25.77% 8.28%

Results by state

President before election Nereu Ramos PSD Elected President Juscelino Kubitschek PSD

Vice president

Candidate João Goulart Milton Campos [pt] Danton Coelho [pt] Party PTB UDN PSP Popular vote 3,591,409 3,384,739 1,140,261 Percentage 44.25% 41.70% 14.05%

Vice President before election Vacant Elected Vice President João Goulart PTB

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Presidential elections were held inBrazil on 3 October 1955 to elect both the president and vice president.^[1]Juscelino Kubitschek of theSocial Democratic Party was elected president with 36% of the vote, whileJoão Goulart of theBrazilian Labour Party was elected vice president with 44% of the vote. Voter turnout was 60% in both elections.

After the suicide ofGetúlio Vargas, his Vice PresidentJoão Café Filho took office. Prior to Vargas' death, Brazil was living a time of intense political division, with the right-wing oppositionNational Democratic Union (UDN), high-level military officers and the mass media openly trying to depose him following the attempted assassination of right-wing journalistCarlos Lacerda, allegedly ordered by Vargas.

Juscelino Kubitschek, then Governor ofMinas Gerais and a member of the pro-VargasSocial Democratic Party (PSD) announced his candidacy and built an alliance with the popular left-wing populistJoão Goulart of Vargas'Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), who was Vargas' former Minister of Labour and personal friend and who became cherished by the workers after granting a 100% increase in theminimum wage. A PSD-PTB coalition was then formed, with Kubitschek as the presidential candidate and Goulart as his running mate.

The UDN, which wanted to do a more moderate and centrist image launched the candidacy ofJuarez Távora, an old military officer. The party formed a multi-party coalition in order to defeat the PSD-PTB coalition, a coalition which included theRepublican Party and theChristian Democratic Party.

TheSocial Progressive Party (PSP) candidate was its leader, thepopulist formerSão Paulo GovernorAdhemar de Barros. The PSP had supported Vargas in 1950, helping him win, but Adhemar was known to have presidential ambitions of his own.

Also on the right,Plínio Salgado of the minorPopular Representation Party (PRP) ran for president. Salgado was known for being the leader ofBrazilian Integralism in the late 1930s and early 1940s.Integralismo was a far right movement described as a Brazilian branch offascism.

During the campaign,Luís Carlos Prestes, leader of then illegalBrazilian Communist Party (PCB) recommended the tactical vote for the Kubitschek-Goulart ticket, an incident which increased the communist denunciations of the UDN and the media against the PSD-PTB campaign.

• GovernorJuscelino Kubitschek ofMinas Gerais (PSD)
• Former Agriculture MinisterJuarez Távora ofCeará (UDN)
• FormerGovernorAdhemar de Barros ofSão Paulo (PSP)
• Plínio Salgado (PRP)

• Presidential elections in Brazil
• 1955 elections in South America
• 1955 elections in Brazil

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