Lula quits Brazilian presidential election
BRAZIL’S jailed ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tapped his runningmate Fernando Haddad on Tuesday to replace him on the ballot in next month’s presidential election, bowing out of the race after he was barred from seeking a new term.
The switch was approved at a meeting of the Workers Party in the southern city of Curitiba – where Lula has been held since April for corruption – as the clock ticked down on a court-ordered deadline for him to name a stand-in.
Hundreds of Lula supporters were gathered near the jail where he is being held. Haddad read a letter there from his mentor anointing him as his political heir.
“It is time to get out on the streets, with heads high, and win this election!” Haddad told supporters.
The decision came less than two weeks after Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal ruled that the popular but polarizing former president cannot run while serving his 12-year prison sentence.
Though jailed, the 72-yearold Lula was the frontrunner in polls, and his removal from the race has scrambled the field, catapulting right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro to the fore.
Bolsonaro, a polarizing figure who has been criticised for outbursts deemed raci s t , misogynist and homophobic, was stabbed while on the campaign trail last week.
Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo who a lso ser ved as Lu la’s educat ion mi n i ster, f ac e s a r ac e aga i nst t i me wit h t he f irst round of voting less than a month away.
His ability to hold on to Lula’s base will be key if he and his expected runningmate, youthf u l communist Manuela d’Avila, are to reach the second round, set for October 28.
Little star power
Haddad’s political career put him at the centre of the Workers Party, but without ever emerging from Lula’s shadow – and the 55-year-old has displayed little of the star power of his mentor.
A poll released on Monday by Datafolha shows Haddad with nine per cent support, up five points from a month ago.
That places him in a mix of candidates aspiring to go to a second round of voting against Bolsonaro, who currently is out front at 26 per cent.
He was convicted in July 2017 of taking a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in the form of a luxury seaside apartment in return for contracts with state oil giant Petrobras.
Numerous appeals of the conviction and sentence have failed, and his lawyers also have been unable to get around rules that have kept Lula off the ballot.