Almost Certain to Be Brazil’s Next President, Rousseff Beats Serra in His Own Home State

Lula and Dilma With Lula’s popularity soaring at about 80%, these are not good times to be opposition in Brazil. While the Brazilian ruling coalition presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff consolidates her lead in opinion polls and is almost certain to win in the first round October 3, her main rival José Serra’s campaign seems to have fallen in disarray. 

In effect in his latest criticisms Serra claims that a government can’t be managed by remote control or “under instructions”, much less “outsourced”, trying to convince the electorate that who really is going to run the show if Ms Rousseff is elected is her mentor and protector president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

However this has been precisely the real message of Lula, the most popular Brazilian president in the last six decades, who has gone out of his way to tell the people that Ms Rousseff is the continuation and guarantee of his administration.

“She’s me, dressed as a woman” and “we must give women a chance” has on occasions said the Brazilian president in a permanent effort to convince the electorate that they can trust the lady bureaucrat, former minister and cabinet chief but with no electoral experience.

“A candidate can’t have two faces. Commands are not outsourced. It’s imaginative, creative to think Brazil can be ruled by Lula out of the government. That’s not possible”, said Serra, former governor of the state of São Paulo addressing representatives from manufacturing industries.

But the fact is that the latest public opinion poll released over the weekend showed Ms Rousseff further distancing herself from Serra having reached 51% vote intention, which automatically would avoid a run off at the end of October.

According to pollster Ibope, published Sunday by daily O Estado de S. Paulo, Rousseff has increased her advantage from 11 points in the previous poll August 16, to 24 points, with Serra skidding from 32% to 27%. Marina Silva from the Green Party remains in third place but her vote intention dropped from 8% to 7%.

Rousseff is even leading in Serra’s home state of São Paulo, which has the country’s largest electorate. She has 42% against 35% for Serra.

Rapid economic growth this year and promises to continue with the policies of Lula have helped increase Rousseff’s ratings. Her lead over Serra got a further boost since the campaign slots started on television this month that have linked her closely with Lula.

The ads have given many voters their first in-depth look at Rousseff, who was little known by the Brazilian public only a couple of months ago. She trailed Serra in the polls as recently as June. Sunday’s poll showed her getting 59% of valid votes once spoiled and blank ballots are discarded.

In Minas Gerais, considered a vital “swing” state and home to the country’s second largest electorate, Rousseff leads Serra by 51% to 25%, the poll showed.

Ibope interviewed 2,506 people for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Mercopress

Tags:

You May Also Like

Banco do Brasil Earns More Than Brazil’s Largest Private Bank

Brazilian state-controlled Banco do Brasil had revenues of US$ 1.8 billion in the first ...

Explaining America

Eleonora Duvivier Dodds, an Illinois-based Brazilian writer, had years of scholastic training at the ...

Leader of Scale Model Market in Brazil Goes International

Brazilian company Adhemir Fogassa Maquetes, which currently has an 80% share of the scale ...

Brazil’s Petrobras Finds New Oil Reserves

Petrobras (Brazil Petroleum S.A.) informed the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) that it discovered oil ...

Brazil Starts US$ 133 Billion, Ten-Year Push in Search of Oil and Gas

Energy corporations will invest US$ 133 billion in the next ten years looking for ...

Brazil Reopens Oil Wells Abandoned Due to Low Production

The situation prevailing in the petroleum sector, with demand in frank expansion and petroleum ...

After Discovering Joí£o Pessoa I’m Moving to Brazil and Bringing My Friends

My name is Richard Conti. I am originally from New York City. Being raised ...

Indians and Farmers in State of War in Brazil

The almost 4,000 Terena people who live in the 2,090 hectares of the Buriti ...

Aviation Expert Blames Authorities for Brazil’s Worst Air Accident Ever

Less than one year after the collision on September 29, 2006, of a Boeing ...

World’s Top AIDS Experts in Brazil for Conference on HIV

The four-day 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment, where more than 5,000 ...