BRAZIL: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and candidate Geraldo Alckmin face off in second round elections

Record ID: 346321

  • Title: BRAZIL: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and candidate Geraldo Alckmin face off in second round elections
  • Date: 28th October 2006
  • Summary: (BN12) RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GRAPH IN NEWSPAPER SHOWING OPINION POLLS (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA5RPKSR96Q7Y9AYDE0CDGPQ9LQ
  • Story Text: Born to a penniless, semi-literate family in Brazil's wretched northeastern desert, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, moved as a boy to Sao Paulo state in search of work.
    In the early 1970s he was elected to the union leadership, the first in a series of important posts he held in Sao Bernardo do Campo, the birthplace of Brazil's automobile industry.
    As a fiery union leader, he led huge strikes against the 1964-1985 military dictatorship and was briefly jailed. Soon after, he founded the Workers' Party, or PT, turning it into the most potent left-wing political force in Latin America.
    In his fourth bid for the presidency in 2002, Lula won in a landslide after tempering his once incendiary rhetoric, trimming his unruly beard and donning suits and ties.
    Born and raised in a small town of the powerful Sao Paulo state, 54 year-old Geraldo Alckmin of the PSDB or Brazilian Social Democracy Party, began his political career at 19, when he was elected city councillor.
    He took over the government of Sao Paulo in 2002, defeating Jose Genoino of the Workers' Party to become governor of Brazil's richest state with over 12 million votes.
    All along his presidential campaign, Alckmin fought the image of a boring politician, who lacks charisma and style, which has contributed to his low popularity.
    Political analyst Helio Jaguaribe described the differences between the two candidates.
    "On one hand there is a laborer who makes a brilliant career as a union leader and from that condition guides a party (Workers' Party) and from this party reaches power. On the other hand, a provincial doctor, also of a modest origin that builds his career initially as a professional, later entering politics and ends as Sao Paulo governor and from that condition becomes a candidate (to presidency)," he said.
    Candidates Lula and Alckmin have faced each other in three televised debates where they have exchanged a series of accusations and even insults.
    "It seems to me that the governor wasn't in Brazil in 2003, because if he were, he could begin this debate thanking me. Thanking me for having along with the Brazilian people, saved this country," he said.
    His rival Alckmin frequently brought up ethical issues which Lula faced in his first term, but also condemned other aspects of his government. During a debate Alckmin criticized Lula's economic plan saying it was expensive.
    "The government can't be expensive, heavy, but has to have economic activism. Stability isn't an economic plan, an economic plan is growth," he said.
    Alckmin trails his opponent Lula by more than 20 percentage points according to the latest polls. A victory in the second round is almost guaranteed for Lula, who has the support of the lower layers of society, whom he helped with social assistance programs.
    The former metalworker embellished his image as a man of the people and relied on folksy humour to make the former Sao Paulo governor look like an angry moral crusader who had become unglued.
    Lula fell short of an outright victory in the first round of voting on Oct. 1 against a wider field as voters reacted to a smear campaign that his election team tried to orchestrate against Alckmin and other opposition politicians.
    Voters are divided among the two candidates, between ethical and security issues that haunt both candidates. Vera Souto said she would vote for Lula.
    "He (Alckmin) didn't do anything in Sao Paulo, will he do anything in Brazil? Never. I don't believe in him," he said.
    Voter Claudio Costa said Lula lost the opportunity to finish his term on a high note and remained suspicious of the corruption allegations which clouded his term.
    "Lula lost the opportunity to make a great government, got wrapped up with people who surrounded him (corrupt minister and aides), found excuses to say he didn't know anything (about corruption scandals) and I think he knew about everything," he said.
    President Lula will face the last major test of his campaign for a second term on Friday (October 27) in a debate on Brazil's biggest TV network against his rival Alckmin, desperate to avoid losing in a landslide vote.
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