Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff steeled herself Monday for a hard-fought race against center-right challenger Aecio Neves, who is seeking to unite frustrated voters to beat her in a run-off.
After a dramatic campaign, the leftist incumbent won Sunday's first-round poll with 42 percent of the vote to 34 percent for business favorite Neves -- who nonetheless enters the second round with strong momentum after staging an improbable comeback against popular environmentalist Marina Silva.
As the countdown to the October 26 run-off began, Rousseff and Neves wasted no time trading jabs over their competing visions on how to reboot the world's seventh-largest economy, which is mired in recession, and address the frustrations of voters angry over corruption and poor public services.
After Rousseff said Sunday that Neves, the scion of an influential political family, represented the "ghosts of the past," the former governor hit back in a press conference Monday.
"I was surprised to hear President Dilma comment that people had to be careful with the ghosts of the past. The truth is they are worried about the monsters of the present, such as high inflation, recession, corruption," he said.
He said he would appoint former central bank chief Arminio Fraga as finance minister to bolster investor confidence.
Markets reacted favorably, with Sao Paulo's benchmark stock index closing up 4.72 percent.
- What happened to Silva? -
Political analysts and Silva supporters meanwhile dissected the spectacular implosion of the Socialist candidate, who just a month ago looked set to become multi-racial Brazil's first black president.
Silva, who grew up poor and illiterate in the Amazon before rising to become a respected conservation activist, senator and environment minister, upended the race when she took the place of her late running mate Eduardo Campos after his death in a plane crash on August 13.
She soared in the polls, which initially picked her to beat Rousseff in a run-off.
But she ultimately garnered just 21 percent of the vote.
Daniel Vargas, associate professor of law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said Silva had been a weak candidate whose smaller Socialist party proved no match for the electoral machines of Rousseff's Workers' Party (PT) and Neves's Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which between them have ruled Brazil for the past 20 years.
"Marina Silva did not manage to defend herself from the attacks of rival parties and gradually that created the image of a fragile candidature a little weak on some points," Vargas told AFP.
Andre Cesar, an analyst at consultancy Prospectiva, said Silva's initial bounce in the polls had been an "emotional" voter reaction soon dispelled by a poorly run campaign and the complicated realities of Brazilian politics, where striking alliances is a must.
"She was inconsistent on key issues. She couldn't state clearly who she would form alliances with to guarantee she would be able to govern, what her relationship would be with Congress, with the powerful PMDB party," a massive centrist party seen as essential to doing business in Brasilia, he said.
Andre Perfeito, an analyst with Gradual Investments, said that after flirting for weeks with Silva, "the electorate has shown itself to be conservative.
"Imagining itself as wanting change, it showed itself more cautious than initially thought," he said.
- Courting swing voters -
Both Rousseff and Neves were looking for Silva's endorsement Monday -- but none was forthcoming.
David Fleischer, political scientist at Brasilia University, predicted the third-place candidate would throw her backing to Neves.
"I think Marina will support Aecio. She is angry at Dilma's attacks" on her, he told AFP, saying the two women had not seen eye to eye when they both served as cabinet ministers in the PT's first government.
In his first speech after the vote, Neves urged Silva "to join forces."
But Silva merely said that "Brazil has clearly indicated it is not for the status quo."
The election is widely seen as a referendum on 12 years of PT government.
Besides the soft economy, Rousseff, 66, has also been battling an emerging scandal at state-owned oil giant Petrobras, which she formerly chaired, amid allegations by a former director of huge kickbacks largely benefiting PT politicians and their allies.
Her government was also hit by million-strong street protests last year over corruption scandals and poor public services.
The former leftist guerrilla, who was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Brazil's dictatorship, needs around a third of Silva's votes to win a second term.
Brazil’s leftist President Dilma Rousseff steeled herself Monday for a hard-fought race against center-right challenger Aecio Neves, who is seeking to unite frustrated voters to beat her in a run-off.
After a dramatic campaign, the leftist incumbent won Sunday’s first-round poll with 42 percent of the vote to 34 percent for business favorite Neves — who nonetheless enters the second round with strong momentum after staging an improbable comeback against popular environmentalist Marina Silva.
As the countdown to the October 26 run-off began, Rousseff and Neves wasted no time trading jabs over their competing visions on how to reboot the world’s seventh-largest economy, which is mired in recession, and address the frustrations of voters angry over corruption and poor public services.
After Rousseff said Sunday that Neves, the scion of an influential political family, represented the “ghosts of the past,” the former governor hit back in a press conference Monday.
“I was surprised to hear President Dilma comment that people had to be careful with the ghosts of the past. The truth is they are worried about the monsters of the present, such as high inflation, recession, corruption,” he said.
He said he would appoint former central bank chief Arminio Fraga as finance minister to bolster investor confidence.
Markets reacted favorably, with Sao Paulo’s benchmark stock index closing up 4.72 percent.
– What happened to Silva? –
Political analysts and Silva supporters meanwhile dissected the spectacular implosion of the Socialist candidate, who just a month ago looked set to become multi-racial Brazil’s first black president.
Silva, who grew up poor and illiterate in the Amazon before rising to become a respected conservation activist, senator and environment minister, upended the race when she took the place of her late running mate Eduardo Campos after his death in a plane crash on August 13.
She soared in the polls, which initially picked her to beat Rousseff in a run-off.
But she ultimately garnered just 21 percent of the vote.
Daniel Vargas, associate professor of law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said Silva had been a weak candidate whose smaller Socialist party proved no match for the electoral machines of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT) and Neves’s Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which between them have ruled Brazil for the past 20 years.
“Marina Silva did not manage to defend herself from the attacks of rival parties and gradually that created the image of a fragile candidature a little weak on some points,” Vargas told AFP.
Andre Cesar, an analyst at consultancy Prospectiva, said Silva’s initial bounce in the polls had been an “emotional” voter reaction soon dispelled by a poorly run campaign and the complicated realities of Brazilian politics, where striking alliances is a must.
“She was inconsistent on key issues. She couldn’t state clearly who she would form alliances with to guarantee she would be able to govern, what her relationship would be with Congress, with the powerful PMDB party,” a massive centrist party seen as essential to doing business in Brasilia, he said.
Andre Perfeito, an analyst with Gradual Investments, said that after flirting for weeks with Silva, “the electorate has shown itself to be conservative.
“Imagining itself as wanting change, it showed itself more cautious than initially thought,” he said.
– Courting swing voters –
Both Rousseff and Neves were looking for Silva’s endorsement Monday — but none was forthcoming.
David Fleischer, political scientist at Brasilia University, predicted the third-place candidate would throw her backing to Neves.
“I think Marina will support Aecio. She is angry at Dilma’s attacks” on her, he told AFP, saying the two women had not seen eye to eye when they both served as cabinet ministers in the PT’s first government.
In his first speech after the vote, Neves urged Silva “to join forces.”
But Silva merely said that “Brazil has clearly indicated it is not for the status quo.”
The election is widely seen as a referendum on 12 years of PT government.
Besides the soft economy, Rousseff, 66, has also been battling an emerging scandal at state-owned oil giant Petrobras, which she formerly chaired, amid allegations by a former director of huge kickbacks largely benefiting PT politicians and their allies.
Her government was also hit by million-strong street protests last year over corruption scandals and poor public services.
The former leftist guerrilla, who was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Brazil’s dictatorship, needs around a third of Silva’s votes to win a second term.
