MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Clear lead for Lula in Brazilian presidential run-off

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva heads to this Sunday's presidential run-off in Brazil as the favourite, according to a poll by Datafolha published Thursday in Folha de Sao Paulo.

A clear majority of 61% of decided voters would back the Worker's Party (PT) incumbent. Former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Party of Social Democracy (PSDB) would finish second with 39%.

In the first round, held October first Lula da Silva garnered 48.61% of the vote, while Alckmin 41.64%. Since no contender received more than 50% of all cast ballots, a run-off was scheduled for Sunday October 29.

Lula, several times presidential candidate, won the October 2002 election with 61% of the vote in a run-off against the PSDB's Jose Serra. In the first round, Lula received 47% of the vote, and Serra 24%.

President Lula da Silva has managed to remain ahead in spite of several corruption scandals involving close aides and his Workers Party coalition. Last year it was revealed that Congress members received monthly payments in exchange for support to Lula's administration legislative agenda. The money was skimmed from government corporations and the private sector and distributed through some of Lula's most trusted and closest aides who were forced to resign.

In the last leg of this presidential campaign top officials from the Workers Party were caught red-handed by the federal police with almost a million US dollars ready to buy alleged incriminating information on Mr. Alckmin and other opposition candidates. The incident is blamed for having impeded Mr. Lula winning in the first round.

But President Lula's charisma and campaign skills have helped him regain the clear lead. This week he warned supporters that an Alckmin victory would bring "a plan of privatization, a plan of inflation, a plan of unemployment and of submission".

Alckmin questioned whether Lula is no longer in touch with his roots, declaring, "Lula, the workers' man, has become the bankers' man."