The Covid-19 pandemic, the political dispute and the 2020 elections in the Metropolitan Region of Natal (RN, Brazil)

• Autor(a) principal: Barros, Terezinha Cabral de Albuquerque Neta
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Silveira, Raquel Maria da Costa, Medeiros, Sara Raquel Fernandes Queiroz de, Almeida, Lindijane de Souza Bento, Câmara, Richardson Leonardi Moura da, Clementino, Maria do Livramento Miranda, Melo, Kassinely Souza de, Queiroz, João Victor Rocha de, Silva, Gabriel Rodrigues da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Research, Society and Development
• Texto Completo: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/8530
• topic: Covid-19; Eleições Municipais; Região Metropolitana de Natal; Cooperação.; Covid-19; Elecciones Municipales; Región Metropolitana de Natal; Cooperación.; Covid-19; Municipal Elections; Natal Metropolitan Region; Cooperation.

The article analyzes the influence of the 2020 elections on the actions of the managers of the municipalities that make up the functional Metropolitan Region of Natal, in the context of the new coronavirus pandemic. Given this, the objective is to verify how the measures to confront Covid-19 can be used as an electoral strategy. To this end, we adopted the following methodology: 1) Bibliographic research, which helped to define the studies of Almeida (2008) and Manin, Przeworski & Stokes (2006) as a theoretical-methodological basis; and 2) Documentary research based on state and municipal decrees, which were crossed with quantitative data regarding the rates of transferability and occupancy of ICU beds. The data were systematized for temporal and spatial analysis, represented in infographics and thematic maps. The results of the research highlighted the following aspects: the influence of opinion polls in changing posture in the fight against Covid-19; dissonance of actions aimed at political protagonism; the anticipation of the release of commercial activities as a center of dispute - essentially from the state government and the candidate for mayor of the capital; the appeal to kits-covid without scientific recommendations; and strengthening the advantages of managers in contention for reelection. Thus, the political context has been hampering a cooperation stance between the entities in the studied metropolitan region, given the use of the pandemic as a window of opportunity for electoral promotion. Therefore, the existence of governance capable of making planning possible is absent due to the different interests that guide the actions of managers.