New pact for Brazil polls

– Jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party has reached a neutrality pact with the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) that will end their rivalries in several states in Brazil’s general election in October.

The Workers Party announced the move in a statement on Wednesday, while the PSB must still ratify at its convention on Sunday a commitment not to back any presidential candidate since it is not fielding its own.

The pact is a blow to centerleft presidential candidate Ciro Gomes, who is running third in early polling and sought the backing of the PSB to boost his chances of making the run-off between the two candidates with the most votes on October 7.

It also confirms that Brazil’s left will enter the election divided, which could help the business-friendly centre-right candidate Geraldo Alckmin and far-right hopeful Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently the front-runner riding on voter anger with political corruption and rising crime.

Gomes lashed out at Lula for not backing him as a new alternative for Brazil’s progressive forces and for insisting on being a candidate even though the former president is in prison.

“The Workers Party is taking us to the brink of a precipice,” he said in an interview with Globo News cable TV channel.