BRAZIL: Brazilians flock to the polls in Presidential election

Brazilians voted in elections on Sunday (October 01) with signs that public disgust over sleazy politics might prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from securing the outright victory that seemed a foregone conclusion until a few weeks ago. The past few days have seen a dramatic turn-around as opposition candidates flayed Lula, the champion of Brazil's poor, over corruption scandals surrounding his Workers' Party. More than 125 million Brazilians voted, from hamlets in the Amazon to the skyscrapers of Sao Paulo and the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro to the prosperous southern farmlands. Polling stations closed across most of Brazil, except the far west, at 5 p.m. (2000 GMT) and the first official results were expected after 7 p.m (2200 GMT). "In this section (electoral section) elections were closed at 17:00 hours (20:00 GMT) without any abnormality, demonstrating a lot of success in the electronic voting machines," said Simoney Alves who was managing a Rio de Janeiro voting centre. Until two weeks ago, former factory worker Lula had been cruising to re-election with polls showing he would take an absolute majority in the first round against seven other candidates, thus avoiding a two-horse second round. But revelations that his campaign staff tried to buy information for a smear campaign against his main challenger Geraldo Alckmin gave a lackluster opposition new ammunition. It also reminded voters of a string of bribery and vote-buying scandals which have cost Lula's chief of staff, his finance minister and other aides their jobs. Two polls on Saturday (September 30) showed the vote could go to second round, meaning voters would go back to the ballot box on Oct. 29. Although Lula is still expected to win eventually, that scenario would further polarize the country and make it harder for him to gain the consensus needed to pass reforms. Support for the burly 60-year-old, who rose from union politics in a Sao Bernardo car factory to the leadership of the world's fourth-largest democracy, has been boosted by rising wages and social welfare programs that have benefited the ranks of poor in this country of 185 million people. Alckmin, the stiff, former governor of Brazil's richest state Sao Paulo, has promised to cut taxes and make conditions easier for investment. When Lula came to power four years ago, panicky investors feared a wave of anti-business, populist policies and U.S. conservatives talked about a Latin American "axis of evil" linking him with his friends Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. But he won the approval of Wall Street with conservative economic policies that stabilized the economy. And despite differences with the United States over trade, he became a reliable ally for the Bush administration in a region where ant-U.S. sentiment is on the rise. Unlike several other elections in Latin America this year, Brazil's offered no widely differing visions although as the scandals eroded his advantage, Lula began to rail against the rich like the leftist firebrand of the old days. As well as the presidential contest, Brazilians are voting for state governors, Congress and state assemblies. It is the sixth presidential election since 21 years of military rule ended in 1985.

ITN Source | October 2, 2006