MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian president hammered in debate

Centrist Geraldo Alckmin hammered President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over corruption allegations in the third televised debate ahead of an Oct. 29 runoff election.

Silva, who is favored to win the runoff and a second term, responded by saying that his government will continue to investigate every corruption charge levied against it, and that "those guilty, no matter whom they may be, will be punished."

Silva sidestepped Alckmin's question about an alleged dirty-tricks campaign against Alckmin's Social Democratic party ? widely believed to have cost Silva a first-round victory.

The so-called "dossier scandal" broke weeks before the election on Oct. 1, with allegations that Silva's Workers' Party tried to pay the equivalent of $770,000 for evidence allegedly linking Sao Paulo gubernatorial candidate Jose Serra, of the Social Democratic Party, to graft when he was health minister between 1998 and 2002.

In Monday's debate, Alckmin pounded at the corruption issue, saying that "accelerated corruption and slow economic growth" are the principal traits of Silva's government.

He also criticized the economic policies of Silva's administration, saying they were preventing the economy from growing. He said high interest rates, elevated taxes and an overvalued currency were strangling industries that cannot compete in the international market.

"China's economy grows at 9 or 10 percent, the economies of emerging countries grow by 7 percent and Brazil's economy grows by just 2 percent," Alckmin said. "This cannot go on."

Silva, however, remains popular for his programs that have helped lower Brazil's poverty rate and stabilized inflation.

Alckmin, the former governor of Sao Paulo state, got enough votes in the first round to deny Silva an outright win, forcing a runoff vote. Silva took 48.6 percent of the vote, while Alckmin got about 42 percent.

A survey released last week by the Public Opinion Research Institute, or Ibope, showed that Silva had widened his lead over Alckmin. The poll indicated Silva would get 62 percent of the valid votes, compared with 38 percent for Alckmin.

Ibope interviewed 3,010 voters in 198 cities and towns. The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.