Brazil’s presidential debate showcases divided nation
SAO PAULO: Brazil’s top presidential candidates – minus imprisoned frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – have clashed in the first debate of the campaign, showcasing sharp divides in Latin America’s biggest nation.
The debate in Sao Paulo, broadcast on TV Bandeirantes on Thursday, featured eight of the 13 candidates competing ahead of the Oct 7 first round of voting.
Lula, who has a stunning lead in the polls despite serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, was absent.
But four major players were on stage: right-winger Jair Bolsonaro, who is polling in second place after Lula, and his next hottest rivals – center-right former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin and environmentalist Marina Silva, followed by leftist Ciro Gomes.
The combative tone among the seven men and one woman quickly illustrated the battle lines after two years of severe recession, a tidal wave of violent crime, and one of the world’s biggest corruption scandals.
With deeply unpopular President Michel Temer not seeking a new term, it is the least predictable election in decades.
Alckmin, who wants to be seen as the calm, authoritative, probusiness candidate, stressed the need for market reforms so that the economy can “grow and grow strongly.”
But Silva scored a point likely to have gone down well with voters angry at the ruling establishment, including Alckmin’s center- right PSDB party, when she said:
“Those who created the problems won’t solve the problems.” — AFP