ABL has last election of the year to choose again immortal
The Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) elects today (16), in a hybrid session at the Petit Trianon, the institution's headquarters, in Rio, the new occupant of chair 2 of its effective membership, vacating with death, on the 9th of September this year, aged 93, by the philosopher, professor and magistrate Tarcísio Padilha.
Ten candidates, including two women, are running for succession. The one who achieves the absolute majority of votes will be elected. The candidates are, in order of registration: Sergio Bermudes, Gabriel Chalita, Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca, Samia Macedo, Antônio Helio da Silva, José Humberto da Silva Henriques, Eloi Angelos Guio D'Aracosia, Jeff Thomas, José William Vavruk, Joana Rodrigues and Alexandre Figueiredo.
After the vote, the new president of ABL, journalist Merval Pereira, will proceed with the traditional burning of votes. Before Tarcísio Padilha, Chair 2 was held by Coelho Neto (founder), João Neves da Fontoura, João Guimarães Rosa and Mário Palmério.
This is the fifth and final election this year of new ABL immortals. Normally, all this movement, or accumulation of elections, would not have occurred in the same period. But due to the covid-19 pandemic, ABL was left without its face-to-face academic sessions. Only when the institution returned to having sessions in a virtual format, first, and then in a hybrid mode, could the procedures for occupying the chairs be resumed.
The new immortals elected in 2021 were the actress Fernanda Montenegro, for seat 17, which was held by jurist Afonso Arinos de Mello Franco; the composer and former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, for chair 20, previously occupied by journalist Murilo Melo Filho; the surgeon Paulo Niemeyer, for chair 12, which belonged to the literary critic Alfredo Bosi; and the novelist and lawyer José Paulo Cavalcanti for chair 39, of the former vice-president of the Republic, Marco Maciel.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
