Polling results released this past Friday showed the Workers Party’s (PT) Dilma Rousseff leading José Serra – her main challenger from Brazil’s Social Democrat Party (PSDB) – by a margin of 5-8 points. The results mark the first time that most polls decisively show Lula’s chosen successor ahead of Mr. Serra since the formal election season began. The latest polling figures were released a week before the leading candidates are due to appear on a televised debate (scheduled for Thursday, August 12th), and follow weeks of intense campaigning by all candidates and an improved electoral strategy from the Rousseff camp.
President Lula is much to credit for Ms. Rousseff’s slight rise in the polls. The popular President has aided Ms. Rousseff’s campaign effort by increasing his appearances in public rallies and commercials with the PT candidate (often in breach of electoral law) and by helping improve the public’s opinion of the PT on issues relating to its often-contentious foreign policy.
President Lula has also sought to weaken one of the PSDB’s campaign weapons against the PT government, that of Brazil’s controversial relationship with Iran, by slightly distancing his administration’s stance on human rights from those of the Iranian state. This past Saturday President Lula offered to provide asylum to Iranian national Sakineh Ashtiani, who is sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, after initially refusing to get involved in the affair. The move is not only intended to improve the public’s view of Brazil’s ties to Iran, but allow him (and Ms. Rousseff) to argue that Brazil’s relationship with the middle-eastern state is based primarily on common geopolitical interests – human rights aside. President Lula is hoping that his carefully worded appeal to the Iranian state will be successful given the vast amount of political capital that Brazil has accumulated from its stalwart defense of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
(Photo: Associated Press)
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