MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Apathy and Lula lead Brazilian poll

Three presidential hopefuls from the ruling Brazilian coalition for the October election are running a tight race but only one of them could in the second round confront Luiz Igancio Lula da Silva, the opposition candidate from the Socialist Workers Party who is leading in the polls with 25,9%, according to one of the latest polls released and published in the Brazilian media.

The three candidates are Roseana Sarney with 17,3%, José Serra 15,3% and Anthony Garotinho, 14,8%, but only Mr. Serra could eventually face Mr. Lula with a certain degree of success in the second round: Lula would manage 42,9% of vote intention and Mr. Serra 41,2%.

Ms. Sarney and Mr. Garontinho would be openly defeated by the opposition candidate.The poll was taken between March 15th. and 21st., among 2.000 potential voters in the main states of Brazil.

Among those polled, 12,4% said they were willing to vote blank or destroy their ballots. However, and is spite of the intense political campaign in the media to choose a successor for President Fernando Cardoso two consecutive mandates, 45,5% of those interviewed replied they are not interested in the election, and only 17,9% follow the debates closely.

Furthermore, when the potential voters when shown the list of presidential candidates, 57,6% said they were undecided, willing to vote blank or destroy their ballot. Regarding legislative candidates the percentage climbed beyond 63%.

Regarding President Cardoso's current standing, 28% consider his administration positive; 38% insufficient and 29% decisively negative.