In the ARENA

It was the first general election since the army toppled President Joao Goulart almost three years ago, and Brazilians took their voting seriously. There were the usual murders in various election brawls. In some remote western areas, voters traveled 19 days in order to reach the nearest ballot box. As the votes came in last week, they pointed toward a resounding sweep for the government's ARENA Party.

At stake were 23 seats in the 66-member federal Senate, all 409 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, plus all 22 state legislatures, local councils and municipal mayorships. Under Brazil's new government-decreed two-party system, voters could either cast their ballot for the government's ARENA candidate or for the opposition M.D.B.--thus theoretically voting for or against President Humberto Castello Branco's brand of "revolution." Such is Brazilian politics today that a vote for a government candidate was not always a vote for the government. Some ARENA candidates openly proclaimed-their opposition to Castello Branco. In Sao Paulo, one ARENA campaigner pleaded for votes so that "I can oppose the government's policies from within." The opposition, far freer with its criticism, loudly blasted the diminutive ex-general for his "dictatorship."

With more than half of the votes counted by week's end, ARENA appeared to have won 260 or more seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 or 18 seats in the Senate; it was also leading in 19 out of the 22 state legislatures, as well as in most of the municipal councils and mayoralties.'

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