#zimbabwe Dilma in pole position as Brazilians go to the polls Dilma Rousseff RIO DE JANEIRO. — Voters across Brazil were casting ballots yesterday in the most unpredictable presidential election in decades and the first since the end of an economic boom underpinning the leftist Workers’ Party’s 12-year rule. As President Dilma Rousseff seeks a second term, voters are weighing whether the socio-economic gains of the last decade are enough to reject the candidacies of a popular environmentalist and a pro-business social democrat, who both promise to jump-start the economy after four years of lacklustre growth. Polls show Rousseff as the front runner in a race that is likely to go to a run-off on October 26, following one of the most competitive campaigns since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985. The death of one candidate, the unexpected surge of another, and fierce marketing by Rousseff to claw back into the lead have contributed to a nail-biter election as uncertain as the course of the country itself. “It really is too close to call,” said Rafael Cortez, a political analyst with Tendencias, a consultancy in Sao Paulo. “Volatility and frustration favour opposition candidates, but you don’t really have a crisis to topple the government, either.” Rousseff’s main rivals are Marina Silva, a hero of the global conservation movement and ruling party defector now with the Brazilian Socialist Party, and Aecio Neves, a senator and former state governor from the centrist party that laid the groundwork for Brazil’s economic boom last decade. At midday, voting was proceeding without major problems, from densely populated southern cities to remote Amazon villages. Rousseff, wearing the Workers’ Party’s signature red, voted shortly after polls opened in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where she lived and rose in the state bureaucracy in the 1990s. Silva voted in the Amazon state of Acre, where she was born into a family of poor rubber tappers, while Neves cast his ballot in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern state he governed before serving in Brazil’s Senate. The two opposition candidates, in a last-minute sprint for runner-up, both promise to return to the market-friendly economic policies that critics say Rousseff abandoned, especially strict budget and inflation targets. They also vow to stop meddling with big, state-run banks and companies that have been subject to political intervention and corruption scandals. After trailing Silva for most of the campaign, Neves may have built up enough momentum to advance to a run-off against Rousseff. Three polls on Saturday showed Neves slightly ahead of Silva. Rousseff counts on a bedrock of support among the working class, thanks to generous social welfare programs that grew in scope during the two terms of her hugely popular predecessor and political godfather, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “What’s at stake is continuity,” said Ana Augusta de Medeiros, a 71-year-old voter in Rio who praised the ruling party’s efforts against poverty. “I hope they will continue working on behalf of the poor.” Even after mass protests a year ago, driven by the economic malaise and anger over corruption and poor public services, Rousseff remains the favourite, helped by a barrage of negative campaigning that eroded an early lead by Silva. Rousseff might even eke out a first-round victory, although no poll has suggested she has the impetus to clear the 50 percent needed to win the election on Sunday. The numbers for a run-off are tighter, but also give Rousseff an edge. During the boom, fuelled by soaring commodity exports to China and other emerging economies, Brazil’s economy grew by an average of more than 4 percent a year, lifting more than 30 million people from poverty. Now the economy, which dipped into recession last quarter, is on track to grow less than 2 percent a year by the end of Rousseff’s term in December. The slowing economy, and a desire among many for new leadership, fuel the support for Rousseff’s rivals. “I hope we’ll get change,” said Jarbas Martins de Castro, a retired civil servant in Brasilia, the capital. “It’s been a long time for one party to be in power.” The day-long vote will unfold at 450 000 polling stations across the country of 200 million people. — Reuters
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 23:36:28 +0000
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