As anticipated, Brazil’s ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff beat her rival, a former Sao Paulo state governor, in Sunday’s second round of the presidential election to become the first woman ever to lead Latin American’s most powerful economy, France24 reports.
Rousseff, who has promised to continue the economic policies of her predecessor, President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, picked up almost 56 percent of the vote.
Sunday’s presidential contest pit Rousseff of the Workers‘ Party (PT) against Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). Serra, a career politician, lost the 2002 presidential run-off against Lula.
Rousseff’s victory was largely owed to the endorsement of the popular outgoing president, who hand-picked Rousseff, 62, to succeed him, and is leaving the presidency in January with an approval rating above 80 percent.
Some 135 million people were eligible to vote, which is compulsory in Brazil. Among them, 15 million voters also cast ballots in run-off elections for governor in eight states and the federal district of Brasilia.
The election was the fifth democratic presidential poll since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
An economist and former energy minister, Rousseff had never run for elected office and was considered an obscure figure until Lula picked her as his successor.
Despite the former president’s endorsement, she fell short of the 50 percent majority needed in the October 3 first round when Serra defied predictions of an electoral routing.
Evangelical Green Party candidate Marina Silva, who came third in the first round, siphoned votes away from Rousseff. It was widely speculated that evangelical Christians punished Rousseff for not clearly expressing her opinion on abortion.
“Abortion became a deciding theme in the election,” Time magazine correspondent Dominic Phillips told FRANCE 24, adding that Pope Benedict XVI even “ordered bishops to tell Catholics to vote for the candidate that would be most against abortion.”
Despite Serra’s hopes that Silva would endorse him for the second round, the Green Party politician stayed neutral. Analysts say Serra proved to be the less charismatic candidate on the campaign trail and he was unable to overcome the popular support for the Workers Party following years of massive economic growth.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011023272414
No comments:
Post a Comment