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Brazil’s Serra takes underdog candidacy to runoff

04 October 2010 18:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Emboldened Brazilian opposition leader Jose Serra must lure environmentalists and others who backed a third-party candidate in Sunday’s election if he is to derail frontrunner Dilma Rousseff’s march to the presidency, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Serra’s underdog candidacy remained alive after Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla handpicked by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to succeed him at the helm of Latin America’s largest economy, fell short of the 50 percent of votes needed for outright victory.
With nearly all the ballots counted, Rousseff had won 46.9 percent to Serra’s 32.6 percent. They will face each other in an October 31 run-off.
Opinion polls had shown Rousseff on track to win a first-round victory, but a corruption scandal and some voters’ unease about her views on social issues appeared to cost her support while boosting the Green Party’s Marina Silva.
Silva, an evangelical Christian and former environment minister, was the surprise of Sunday’s vote, grabbing 19.3 percent. Opinion polls had put her support at about 15 percent.
At late-night rallies, Rousseff of the ruling Workers’ Party appeared shell-shocked by the result, a newly confident Serra gave what sounded like a victory speech, and a beaming Silva seemed to enjoy her new role as potential kingmaker.
"I want to congratulate Marina Silva. She has contributed to the democratic game in Brazil," Serra told cheering supporters.
It was clear that Serra, a former Sao Paulo state governor, would avidly court the Green Party over the next month to boost his chances in the run-off.
"My heart is totally environmentalist and Serra’s is too," Serra’s vice-presidential running mate, Indio da Costa, said in an explicit overture to the Green Party.
ODDS IN ROUSSEFF’S FAVOR
But the runner-up may face difficulties winning the Green Party over to his side, as its members tend to be more ideologically in line with the left-leaning Workers’ Party.
Serra, 68, has struggled to connect with voters in recent weeks, and insiders in his Brazilian Social Democracy Party have made clear they plan to send out Aecio Neves -- a popular former governor of Minas Gerais, the country’s second-largest electoral college -- to campaign for him ahead of the runoff.
Neves won a Senate seat on Sunday, freeing him up to throw his energies into Serra’s bid.
Rousseff, 62, who was recently given a clean bill of health after a bout of cancer, is still strongly favored to win the October 31 vote and become the first woman to lead Brazil.
A first-round victory, however, would have given her a stronger mandate to push through reforms such as changes to Brazil’s onerous tax laws.
Rousseff sought to put a positive spin on the outcome, telling supporters that a second round would give her more time to detail her proposals.
"We are warriors, and we’re accustomed to challenges," she said in a speech in the capital Brasilia, flanked by her running mate and her party’s top brass. "We do well in second rounds."
Her campaign has been helped by red-hot economic growth and Lula’s constant support. Neither Rousseff nor Serra are seen deviating from the mix of social programs and investor-friendly policies that have made Lula wildly popular, helping Brazilian markets to rally in the run-up to the vote.
Rousseff appeared to be cruising to a first-round knockout until allegations of a kickback scheme involving a former top aide gave Serra an opening. That development coincided with a slump in Rousseff’s support among Brazil’s millions of evangelical Christians, as concerns and rumors swirled about her positions on abortion.
Serra has vowed to run a centrist, pro-business government. Yet he also believes in a strong state presence in some sectors, and his administration would likely be broadly similar in practice to Rousseff’s.
Under Lula’s mix of social welfare policies and generally investor-friendly economic management, Brazil has witnessed the rapid growth of a middle class that is snapping up cars, houses and other goods in record numbers.
The country has also joined Russia, India and China in the "BRIC" group of emerging powers that are gaining global influence, especially as more developed economies have stagnated.
Rousseff, a career civil servant who had never run for office, has vowed to focus on improving Brazil’s woeful infrastructure -- especially as the country prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.