Brazil gripped by chaos ahead of election
Jailing of former president on corruption charge puts run-up to nation’s October vote-up in disarray
Priscilla Moraes
Louis Emanuel
BRAZIL’S elections were thrown into confusion yesterday as Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president, was ordered to prison for his part in a sprawling international corruption scandal.
The front-runner and former socialist leader, known as Lula, was told of his fate in a dramatic supreme court ruling that look almost certain to bar him from running for office again in October.
His party said in a statement after the ruling: “The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Mr da Silva, the candidate of hope. The Workers’ Party will defend this candidacy in the streets and in all instances, until the very last.”
Jair Bolsonaro, a populist from the Social Liberal Party (PSL), is the nearest challenger, polling around 10.5 per cent compared to Mr da Silva’s 18.5 per cent.
Mr Bolsonaro, a Right-wing populist described by some as the Donald Trump of Brazil, has built much of his modest support on opposition to Mr da Silva and his links to the corruption inquiry which has upended Brazil and spread across Latin America.
But Richard Lapper, from the global affairs think tank Chatham House, said Mr Bolsonaro is likely to lose support if Mr da Silva is not allowed to run.
“With Lula out of the race there is a big question about Bolsonaro’s political viability,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr da Silva, 72, had hoped the supreme court would allow him to remain free while he appealed against a 12-year prison sentence.
His imminent detention, following a conviction last year for accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe, leaves the field wide open.
The ruling over Mr da Silva’s jail term all but kills off Mr da Silva’s chances of running for election again, given Brazil’s “clean hands” legislation that bars those with convictions from the presidential ballot.
Brazilians waited late into the night before the supreme court finally handed down its verdict on whether or not Mr da Silva should be imprisoned for a conviction relating to a sprawling money laundering scandal that has been slowly picking off officials and politicians for the last four years.
The televised hearing, which lasted over 10 hours, saw justices split 5-5 until the presiding judge cast the deciding ballot and sealed Mr da Silva’s fate.
Divisions were also on show outside the courtroom with protests and rival protests sweeping the country in two nights of extraordinary social and political pressure. Despite the scandal, Mr da Silva remains hugely popular for leading Brazil through an exceptional period of growth.
The scandal stems from a sweeping inquiry into Lava Jato, or Operation Car Wash, a huge money-laundering inquiry which has exposed financial kickbacks paid by Brazil’s largest construction firm to politicians across Latin America and Africa.
The investigation has already played a hand in bringing down Mr da Silva’s successor Dilma Rousseff and has seen Michel Temer, the current president, charged and his approval rating fall as low as 3 per cent. Both deny fraud.
Sending Mr da Silva to prison will further cripple his election hopes, even though another court, the superior electoral tribunal, will rule on whether he can be on the ballot from his cell. The former president must make the decision to register a new candidate himself.