Rousseff set for first-round win in Brazil election

A FORMER Marxist guerrilla chosen by Brazil’s most popular leader in history to succeed him was the front-runner in yesterday’s presidential election and hoped to pull off what even her predecessor couldn’t: a first-round win with no need for a runoff.

Dilma Rousseff, a 62-year-old bureaucrat, represents the ruling Workers Party and is the choice of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, universally known as Lula, who led Brazil to unparalleled economic growth, increased the nation’s political clout on the global stage, and leaves office with 80% approval ratings.

The last polls published before election day showed Rousseff with a lead of about 20 percentage points over her closest rival, Jose Serra, a 68-year-old centrist from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party and former mayor and governor of Sao Paulo who was badly defeated by Silva in the 2002 election.

“In the last election, I voted for Lula, who has improved the lives of millions of poor and made Brazil a country respected around the world,” said Maria Silveira, a 63-year-old retired teacher.

Maria Aparecida, a 67-year-old retiree voting in Sao Paulo, said the fact Rousseff could become Brazil’s first female leader mattered little to her – it was the quality of the candidate, not gender, that counted.

“It depends on who that woman is. If she is good, then it’s good, but if she is not, than we don’t need a woman as president,” Aparecida said. “Let’s hope that it’s a woman, but more importantly, a woman who is right for the country.”

Rousseff was confident after voting in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where she began her government career. “I fought the good fight, and whoever does that comes out stronger,” she said.

Serra, after voting in Sao Paulo, said Brazilians deserve to see the election head into a second-round vote so the candidates’ platforms can be more closely examined.

Silva, who has been a candidate in every presidential election since 1989 and is constitutionally barred from running for a third term, said this year’s election showed “the consolidation of Brazilian democracy”.

The campaign has been short on substance and long on arguing about who would more efficiently continue the policies of the Silva presidency – eight years during which 20.5 million people have been lifted from poverty.

Despite an ethics scandal that received heavy media coverage in the final weeks of the race, Rousseff’s numbers barely ticked down and polls put her on the cusp of winning an outright majority yesterday and avoiding a runoff on October 31. If the election does go to a second ballot, it could be due to spoiler candidate Marina Silva, a former environment minister who is not related to the president.

In recent weeks, the Green Party candidate’s standing in the polls rose from a steady 10% throughout the campaign to about 14% in the wake of the ethics scandal.