The Workers’ Party (PT) made official this Thursday the candidacy of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the October elections, for which he starts as a favorite over the current ruler, Jair Bolsonaro.
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The leadership of the PT held a convention with the parties of the progressive coalition that it has formed for the elections on October 2in which he approved the formula headed by Lula and whose candidate for vice president is the liberal Geraldo Alckmin.
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The former head of state (2003-2010) was absent from the meeting, held in Sao Paulo, because he is on tour in the state of Pernambuco, the land where he was born 76 years ago and from which he fled to escape hunger with his mother and siblings when he was a child.
All the electoral polls published to date They foresee a comfortable victory for Lula in the elections, with 45% of the supportcompared to the 30% that Bolsonaro would obtain, who will aspire to renew his mandate for another four years.
Some polls have even predicted a victory for the progressive leader in the first round. It will be the sixth time that the name of the former union leader will dispute the Brazilian presidential elections.
The former president of Brazil (2003-2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP
He tried in 1989, 1994 and 1998 and won in 2002 and 2006. In 2018, the year in which Bolsonaro won, he also tried to seek the presidency, but the electoral justice prevented him from doing so because he was convicted of corruption.
However, Lula regained his political rights in March 2021, when the Supreme Court annulled the two sentences that weighed against him and for which he spent 580 days in prison.
Holding party conventions is an essential step in the Brazilian electoral process. They define the names that will contest the elective positions with a view to the presidential, regional and legislative elections.
The Democratic Labor Party (PDT, for its acronym in Portuguese) inaugurated the cycle of conventions the day before, with the proclamation of Ciro Gomes, third in the polls, as its presidential candidate.
On Sunday it will be the turn of President Bolsonaro, who will be proclaimed the candidate of the Liberal Party (PL) at an event in Rio de Janeiro, the political cradle of the far-right leader and Lula’s greatest political adversary.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
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