$10 and a pack of lies: Buying votes from Brazil’s poor

Extreme poverty in Brazil is making some potential voters easy targets for politicians willing to make empty promises and buy votes.

Northeastern Brazil is a magnet for politicians seeking election because it has a large population, lacks infrastructure and has extreme levels of poverty.

But locals say that the politicians are not coming to help – they are coming to buy votes where they are cheapest and keeping people poor, illiterate and desperate makes them easier to manipulate.

Brazil is suffering from a severe recession, but for many in the slums, the poverty and lack of basic services have lasted for generations.

 

Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman reports from the state of Alagoas.