Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. (AFP)
A new poll was released Sunday in Brazil that shows the race to see who will replace Lula as Brazil’s next president is as close as ever.
The two front runners - Jose Serra, the Sao Paulo governor; and Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s chief of staff - are exactly tied at 37% of the vote, according to the poll conducted by Ibope on behalf of O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper and Rede Globo.
When Antanas Mockus, the former mayor of Bogota and the Green party candidate for Colombian presidency in the coming elections, announced he suffered from Parkinson's disease, everybody here thought his chances to win were over.
But they were not. In fact, they increased.
This eccentric university professor is running 10 points behind in latest opinion polls from Juan Manuel Santos, the former minister of defence and mega millionaire who has vowed to continue with President Alvaro Uribe's fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Mockus managed to cut the murder rate in Bogota during his two terms as mayor and has the clean image that, in many circles here, the government lacks. And that, it seems, is his greatest strength.
Brazil is buzzing with news that Marina Silva, President Lula’s former Minister of Environment, is thinking of running for President in 2010 as a candidate from the Partido Verde (Green Party). It’s been confirmed the Green Party offered her the position, and she has said she is seriously considering it. This could potentially be a major blow to Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s hand-picked choice and front runner to be the candidate from his Worker’s Party. Why? Because by all accounts Silva would take serious votes away from Rousseff. In an unscientific poll conducted by O Globo newspaper, 83% of the 2,193 respondents said a Marina Silva candidacy would hurt Rousseff the most.
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Brazil is buzzing with news that Marina Silva, President Lula’s former Minister of Environment, is thinking of running for President in 2010 as a candidate from the Partido Verde (Green Party). It’s been confirmed the Green Party offered her the position, and she has said she is seriously considering it. This could potentially be a major blow to Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s hand-picked choice and front runner to be the candidate from his Worker’s Party. Why? Because by all accounts Silva would take serious votes away from Rousseff. In an unscientific poll conducted by O Globo newspaper, 83% of the 2,193 respondents said a Marina Silva candidacy would hurt Rousseff the most.