* Meanwhile, cabinet members have promised a dramatic post-election change in economic policy. Yesterday the minister for institutional relations, Tarso Genro, told reporters to expect a departure from an orthodox economic policy that had been widely criticised by leftwingers hoping for more radical change following Lula's historic election in 2002.
"The Palocci era is over in Brazil," Mr Genro said, in reference to Antonio Palocci, Lula's former finance minister, who was widely seen as the architect of the country's conservative economic policy. "[Low] growth rates, a neurotic preoccupation with inflation, without thinking about income distribution and growth - this is over." *
[btw, about ten days ago, police investigating one of the scandals linked to the PT (lula's party) recommended that Palocci -- a former Trotskyite -- be arrested]
Tom Phillips om Novo Progresso Monday October 30, 2006
Brazil's leftwing president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won a landslide second term in power last night, a month after being forced into a run-off by allegations of corruption. With 92% of the vote counted last night, Lula had 61%, making it mathematically impossible for his opponent, Geraldo Alckmin of the Social Democratic Party (PSDB), to overtake him.
Just after 7.30pm the president of Brazil's electoral commission, Marco Aurélio Mello, announced the victory at a press conference in Brazil's capital, Brasilia.
Yesterday, as 126 million Brazilians poured into polling stations , opinion polls were predicting a comfortable victory for the country's first working class president. Supporters outside his apartment in Sao Bernardo do Campo greeted him with cheers of "you've already won" when he appeared on his balcony before going out to cast his vote.
In the lead-up to the second round, the dispute between Lula and Mr Alckmin became increasingly acrimonious, with the candidates locking swords over everything from Mr Alckmin's role in outbreaks of organised crime to the cost of the presidential jet.
Lula had described his rival as the candidate of the rich elites, while Mr Alckmin accused his opponent of being a populist who is plotting to sell the Amazon to foreign companies.
During a highly charged television debate on Friday, Lula likened Mr Alckmin to the Portuguese colonists who came from Europe to exploit Brazilian assets. "They have run this country for 500 years," Lula said.
Mr Alckmin-a notoriously bland technocrat nicknamed chuchu (a tasteless green vegetable) - accused the president of incompetence and dishonesty over a series of corruption scandals involving close allies.
In recent weeks, however, Lula has managed to steer the political agenda away from graft allegations, instead focusing on his government's achievements in reducing poverty.
In Brazil's impoverished rural areas, where government officials say welfare projects such as Bolsa Familia (family grant) have reached around 11 million families, such a message has struck a chord. "No president has ever done so much for the poor," said Antonio Ferreira de Almeida Silva, a rural workers' leader in the isolated south of the Amazonian state of Para. "No, it hasn't been perfect, but at least he wants to help us."
Meanwhile, cabinet members have promised a dramatic post-election change in economic policy. Yesterday the minister for institutional relations, Tarso Genro, told reporters to expect a departure from an orthodox economic policy that had been widely criticised by leftwingers hoping for more radical change following Lula's historic election in 2002.
"The Palocci era is over in Brazil," Mr Genro said, in reference to Antonio Palocci, Lula's former finance minister, who was widely seen as the architect of the country's conservative economic policy. "[Low] growth rates, a neurotic preoccupation with inflation, without thinking about income distribution and growth - this is over."