MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Ciro Gomes' party to vote for Lula in runoff

Lula's front for the runoff already includes 11 parties

Brazil's Democratic Workers' Party (PDT), whose presidential candidate Ciro Gomes ended up fourth with 3% of the votes last Sunday, announced Tuesday that it will be supporting former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva over the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the Oct. 30 runoff.

PDT president Carlos Lupi said the party leadership had “unanimously” agreed to support what was closer to their own views, “which is Lula's candidacy.” Lula won last Sunday's first round with 48.4% of the votes, against Bolsonaro's 43.2%.

Gomes, who was third in all polls, finally came in fourth place with 3.04%, behind center-right Senator Simone Tebet's 4.1%.

The now former PDT candidate, who in the campaign was as harsh in his criticism of Bolsonaro as he was of Lula, has not yet openly stated his personal stance but Lupi said he had pledged to “follow the party's position.”

Lupi insisted that at this moment Brazil will have to choose between “a democrat like Lula” and a “wannabe dictator like Bolsonaro.”

The PDT favors a universal minimum income plan, the renegotiation of debts owed by the poorest families, and an education program for children and young people. The PDT, a historic formation of the Brazilian center-left, thus joins a vast progressive front formed by Lula for these elections, which now includes 11 parties.

After Sunday's election, Lula announced he would work to form a “bloc of democrats” to defeat Bolsonaro's liberal policies, although the shadow of corruption scandals still haunts him.