Lula's successor pick is popular

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Lula's successor pick is popular


Brazilians say they're comfortable with the prospect of President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva's handpicked successor continuing his work.

BY TAYLOR BARNES -  THE MIAMI HERALD

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Nearing what is likely to be the election of Brazil's first female president, many here are coolly singing the same refrain: Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

And for plenty, that's just fine.

With polls showing her hovering around 50 percent, Dilma Rousseff, the former chief of staff and handpicked successor of popular incumbent Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party, has a sizable chance to win Sunday's elections without a runoff.

``She can -- she should -- continue his work,'' says David Oliveira, a shoe polisher with black grease on his hands near Rio's municipal theater. He appreciates Lula da Silva's focus on creating jobs for those with no experience and raising the minimum wage. ``[Lula da Silva] can put whoever he wants in there.''

But in just the past few weeks, after the emergence of two alleged scandals close to Rousseff, the ratings of the former guerrilla turned respected bureaucrat -- she has never ran for public office -- have slipped to as low as 46 percent. Members of her party were accused of illegally tapping the tax records of family members of José Serra, her main opponent.

More recently, the family of Rousseff's closest aide was accused of running an influence-peddling scheme to secure government contracts. The aide, Erenice Guerra, resigned.

``I don't have much hope'' for the elections, says the jovial tattoo artist Jaques Peres, adding that he wishes voting wasn't mandatory in Brazil. ``The changes are little [and] each time [there are] more stories of corruption,'' he said.

Still, he prefers Rousseff to Serra because he expects she would continue Lula da Silva's emphasis on the lower classes.

But for Lidiane Alves, an employee at a nearby construction store, it's Lula da Silva's cornerstone anti-poverty project -- his expansion of the conditional-cash transfers to families called Bolsa Família -- that left her unsatisfied and ready to vote for Serra.

``I'm not excited because I think the same thing is going to continue'' if Rousseff wins, Alves says. She believes the Bolsa Família allows many to ``get lazy'' and that Lula should have instead invested more in education and public health.

She does, however, welcome a woman in the country's highest office.

The Green Party`s Marina Silva, herself a native of the remote Amazonian state Acre and former Lula da Silva environment minister, is polling third.

``With Lula, people were motivated a bit more,'' says Rosangela Mota Silva, the owner of a downtown pet shop.

Now, she suggests, it's almost preferable to pay the fine of not voting than to spend the day trekking to one's poll site.

Fabiano Pereira Lourenço Soares, a communications student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, is glad to see Brazil's offices become more ``representative'' if a woman is elected, but says he votes for smaller leftist parties.

``I don't think [Rousseff] is so terrible, but I would prefer a bigger change,'' he said. ``In spite of the feminism of the '70s . . . it's not so concrete in Brazil.''