Brazil's Lula widens lead as TV ads start
By Raymond Colitt
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lead widened by one percentage point from last week over his main rival in Brazil's presidential race, a poll showed on Friday.
It was the first survey of voters' intention released after candidates began television campaigning on Monday. The survey by polling firm Ibope, commissioned by Globo TV, showed Lula with 47 percent in a first-round vote against 21 percent for Geraldo Alckmin of the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
The last Ibope poll on August 10 showed Lula with 46 percent and Alckmin with 21 percent in the first round vote, which will take place on October 1.
Lula, the country's first working-class president, has been helped in the polls by his charismatic appeal, growing social welfare benefits and an expansion in Brazil's economy, which have been highlighted this week in the broadcast campaign.
The Ibope poll released on Friday surveyed 2,002 people from August 15 to 17 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
On the TV ads, Lula says Brazilians have never had it so good. Alckmin and the other candidates seeking to unseat Lula say people are overburdened with taxes while the banks are growing richer.
The broadcast campaigns launched this week by candidates in the presidential election put the debate over Brazil's economy on the center stage.
The ads aired twice a day for six weeks on radio and television are considered a decisive influence in the election, as they are the only effective way to reach the 125 million voters in this vast country.
Lula, who polls tip to win a second term, told viewers in a grandfatherly tone how their living standards had improved.
"Today workers have more jobs, more income and more food on the table," the gray-bearded former factory worker said.
Credit was more accessible and the minimum wage was near a 40-year high, Lula said in his pitch.
"I want Brazilians to have a house, a car, holiday travel, and especially a quality education. Brazil can do better, as long as we don't abandon the right path," Lula said.
Under Lula's government, Brazil will have grown by an average 2.8 percent annually, assuming it grows by 3.5 percent this year as forecasts say.
The leading opposition candidates said in their TV spots that Brazil was suffering from towering interest rates and a stifling tax burden.
Former Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, who trails Lula by more than 20 percentage points in polls, said Brazil paled when compared to international competitors.
"The global economy is at its best in 20 years but Lula's Brazil is not taking advantage," a narrator on Alckmin's spot said, listing neighboring countries that were doing better.
Alckmin, a devout Catholic favored by many business leaders, promised to cut government spending and improve efficiency to increase investments and reduce interest rates.
"Brazilians work four months (a year) to pay for taxes and don't get decent health, schooling or security," a narrator in Alckmin's ad said.
Alckmin, a trained physician who is seen examining patients in one ad, said he would also provide free medicines for the poor, like he did in his home state Sao Paulo.
Third-placed Sen. Heloisa Helena, a socialist who mixes the rhetoric of a concerned mother with that of a revolutionary, said high interest rates were benefiting the financial elite.
"Brazil is the country of rich banks and poor people," she said.
Helena also recalled corruption scandals, including one last year that tainted Lula's ruling Workers' Party.
"Don't vote for corrupt politicians who cheat the poor and govern for bankers," she said.
Rafael Goncalves, a 29-year-old Rio lawyer, said he hadn't yet decided who to vote for.
"It's always the same -- promises they won't keep and bla-bla-bla to trick people," he said. "I switch channel or turn off the TV."
(Additional reporting by Pedro Silva in Rio de Janeiro and Elzio Barreto in Sao Paulo)
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