Lula sweep uncertain as Brazilians go to polls
Reuters, Sao Paulo
Brazilians lined up to vote on Sunday amid signs that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, though still the champion of the poor and workers, may have squandered his chances of a first-round victory because of scandals over sleazy politics. Two polls released on Saturday night showed for the first time in the campaign that Lula could fall short of the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to hand him a second four-year term. Failure to win an absolute majority means voters would go back to the ballot box in a run-off on October 29 -- prolonging a poisonous political atmosphere in the world's fourth-largest democracy. The ballot takes place as Brazilians mourn for the victims of the country's worst-ever air disaster. All 155 people on board are believed to have died in a passenger airliner that crashed in the Amazon jungle on Friday.
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Brazilians line up for casting their votes in general elections yesterday at the Rocinha favela electoral area in Rio de Janeiro. PHOTO: AFP |
