BRAZIL-ELECTIONS-CAMPAIGNS Top candidates campaign on eve of presidential election

Record ID: 347210

  • Title: BRAZIL-ELECTIONS-CAMPAIGNS Top candidates campaign on eve of presidential election
  • Date: 4th October 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS MORE OF THE RALLY
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LAYPJKVE8P4H8PJ5LK943P6P
  • Story Text: Brazilian presidential candidates made their final push on the campaign trail Saturday (October 4), the night before Brazilians finally cast their votes in the hotly contested race for the top job in the South American country.
    Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is leading in recent polls, but she is not expected to get the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a second round runoff as two of the top opposition candidates jockey for second place.
    Dilma was in her home state of Rio Grande de Sul on Saturday where she will cast her vote on Sunday (October 5).
    A throng of supporters rallied for her reelection in a street party that looked more like a Carnival celebration than politics.
    Supporters of her PT Workers' Party waved flags and banners while singing campaign songs as Dilma, as she is known throughout Brazil, paraded by on the back of a truck.
    Supporters here were also backing the reelection of the PT's candidate for governor of the southern state, Tarso Genro.
    "We're pulling for Tarso (Genro, candidate for reelection as the governor of the state of Rio Grande de Sul) and Dilma (Rousseff). Dilma won't win in the first round, but they'll both easily win," one supporter said.
    "I hope Dilma (Rousseff) wins in the first round," another supporter said.
    Meanwhile environmentalist candidate Marina Silva used her last day of campaigning to make a push through Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo.
    Supporters here were hoping their candidate would be able to maintain the slight lead Silva has over pro-business candidate Aecio Neves to make it to the second round to face Rousseff in a one on one competition on October 26.
    Silva said she was confident she would have the votes to make it to the second round and said her campaign ran a clean campaign without attacking the other candidates despite attacks from her opponents who she said tried to pick apart her point by point governing plan.
    "I am certain we will make it to the second round. We've campaigned well. We put up a good fight. The whole time, we kept up our competitiveness without using any kind of aggression. Brazilian society learned to believe in itself and to trust in not using fear to win an election," Silva said.
    Silva was one of the only candidates to lay out a platform.
    "We presented a plan. They tried to tear apart our best merits, but Brazilian society is fair, it has a sense of fairness, and recognizes that the whole time we remained competitive, we didn't attack anyone, we didn't want to tear anyone down. Quite the contrary, we simply want to build a civil Brazil. A Brazil that treats rights as achievements, not favours," she added.
    Over 142,800,000 Brazilians will cast their votes on Sunday, and determine whether a second round of voting will take place on Sunday, October 26.
    Rousseff of the Workers' Party leads in the polls and is expected to take on either Silva of the Brazilian Socialist Party or the Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
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