Brazil - you guessed it, that time of year again

David Madeo David.Madeo at morganstanley.com
Thu Oct 10 01:50:48 UTC 2002


I haven't seen any updates about Brazil on the list yet this year.  I'm
including the commentary from one of my colleagues in our Sao Paulo
office.
  According to 2002c, it is supposed to switch this weekend.

dmadeo

Celso Doria wrote: 
------------------

Yesterday, the local Brazilian authorities signed a decree stating that
the
Brazilian daylight saving period will start on November 3rd 2002 and will
last until February 16th 2003.

So, clocks will be set one hour forward on November 3rd (12:00 a.m. will
be
changed to 1:00 a.m.) and at midnight (0:00 am) on February 16th,  Brazil
will adjust its clocks back one hour (23:00 pm on Feb 15th) marking the
end.


The reason for the delay this year has to do with elections in Brazil.	

Unlike in the United States, elections in Brazil are 100% computerized and
the results are known almost immediately.  Yesterday,  it was the first
round of the elections when 115 million Brazilians voted for  President,
Governor,  Senators, Federal Deputies, and State Deputies. Nobody is
counting (or re-counting) votes anymore and we know there will be a second
round for the Presidency and also for some Governors. The 2nd round will
take place on October 27th.

The reason why the DST will only begin November 3rd is that the thousands
of electoral machines used cannot have their time changed, and since the
Constitution says the elections must begin at 8:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM ,
the Government decided to postpone DST, instead of changing the
Constitution (maybe, for the next elections, it will be possible to change
the clock)...



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