MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Yet another battle?

In spite of the overwhelming showing in Brazil's Sunday presidential election, almost doubling his closest opponent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have a run-off next October 27th.

With 99% of all ballots counted Mr. da Silva won 46,45% of the vote with the government candidate, Mr. José Serra trailing him with 23,19%, and the other hopefuls making up the rest.

This is Mr. da Silva's fourth attempt to the presidency and the second time he makes it to the second round, but he had never received such high levels of first round support.

Political analysts anticipate that in the coming three weeks Mr. Serra, an engineer with a long career in public service, will concentrate on attacking Lula's policy and lack of government experience. Mr. da Silva a former metalworker and activist only finished primary school and in effect never occupied any public post.

However it's expected that the electorate of the two other candidates, Anthony Garotinho and Ciro Gomes, both critics of the current economic policies, will ensure Mr. da Silva's victory at the end of the month.

If finally victorious, Lula would bring hope to the millions of Brazilians living in poverty, but the reaction of financial markets will also be crucial.

In the run up to last Sunday, fears of a defeat of the government's candidate Mr. Serra plunged the Brazilian currency and sovereign bonds, with mounting doubts regarding the country's capacity to honour its 260 billion US dollars foreign debt.

Mr. da Silva has repeatedly insisted he will respect international agreements and stick to stable, market oriented policies, (in line with IMF recommendations), but to little avail.

So these three coming weeks could very well become a hunting ground for international speculation, taking advantage of the political impasse.