Center-left populist presidential candidate Ciro Gomes vowed on Wednesday to reduce concentration in Brazil's banking sector if elected in October, warning that he would open the sector up to more foreign competition if necessary.
Pollster Ibope released on Tuesday its latest vote intention survey for the different Brazilian candidates who will be disputing the first round of the presidential election next October 7, and they proved to be quite similar to those made public a day before by another significant pollster Datafolha.
Jailed former president Lula da Silva has increased his support by five percentage points and would win Brazil's October presidential election if he was allowed to run, a poll by CNT/MDA showed on Monday. The survey, which was last taken in May, found that almost half of the leftist leader's supporters would transfer their votes to his running mate Fernando Haddad if Lula is disqualified from Brazil's most uncertain race in decades.
An XP Investimentos survey in partnership with the Institute of Social, Political and Economic Research (Ipespe) shows the Brazilian pre-candidates Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, tied for first place with 13% of voting intentions each, followed by Ciro Gomes and Geraldo Alckmin, with 2% each.
Brazilian presidential candidate Ciro Gomes has sounded out steelmaking tycoon Benjamin Steinbruch as a possible vice presidential running mate in October and allegedly he would join the ticket if invited.
Joaquim Barbosa, a former chief justice on Brazil's Supreme Court with anti-corruption credentials, said on Tuesday he would not run for the presidency in October, despite a growing clamor for his candidacy. Barbosa, the first and only black member of the high court, had in recent weeks positioned himself as a potential center-left candidate. He was attractive to many because of his clean image and background as a judge who battled corruption.
The speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia, said he will run for the presidency with a market-friendly platform advocating tax cuts and more efficient public spending. Maia’s preliminary nomination by his centre-right Democrats party, the main ally to President Michel Temer, must be formalized at a convention in late July.