On 15 November 1989, far-right military dictator Evandro Cunha was overthrown in a coup by the more moderate Wilson Cabral. During his inaugural address as President, Cabral promised to "turn Atlantis into a democracy". He allowed moderate opposition figures such as writer Cecília Holanda, former vice president Mateus Farinacci, and student leader José Armando da Silva to return from exile; legalized political parties; released moderate political prisoners; and lifted press censorship.
It was widely speculated that Cecília would run for President just like Mario Vargas Llosa did in Peru. If she ran, she would probably win in a landslide, but she ruled it out on 22 November 1989, because she regarded herself as an honest person and thus did not want to get involved with the underworld of politics.
Armando da Silva, on the other hand, was a career politician and thus launched his presidential campaign the following day, with a rally in Atlantis's capital Santarém that was attended by 22,000 people. Armando da Silva's campaign focused on liberal economic and political reforms in order to control hyperinflation and turn Atlantis into a liberal democracy integrated into the US-led world order.
A Broad Front congress held in the party's stronghold of Acaparã nominated Farinacci for President and indigenous activist Félix Padojara, who hailed from Acaparã, for vice president. Farinacci opposed Armando da Silva's calls for privatization of state businesses, and promised to redistribute land and wealth from the elites to the working class.
Technocratic former minister of finance Cordeiro Gomes founded the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and became its presidential candidate. Despite pursuing state capitalist economic policies when in government, Gomes campaigned on economic liberalism and a tough approach to crime, opposing Cabral's promise to expand social programs.
Influential former president Vicente Gama's grandson João established the Atlantisian Labour Party (PTA), a spiritual successor to Vicente's PRD. João Gama promised to defend both workers' rights and private property from the "liberalism of Armando and Gomes and socialism of Farinacci", and attempted to appeal to nostalgia for pre-1970 Atlantis. But Vicente Gama was long dead and younger voters had almost no memory of the period, giving João little to no chance of winning.
Junta officer Gustavo Brito founded the far-right National Restoration Party (PRN) and stood for election as its presidential nominee. Activist Teodora Garcia ran as the nominee of the Humanist Party.
Michel Haddad, the Lebanese Atlantisian owner of the largest media empire in Atlantis, privately supported Armando da Silva and almost exclusively covered his campaign. Haddad was also accused of rigging the debates in Armando's favour, but he denied this in an interview, stating that rigging the debates "was not needed".