Brazilians were voting Sunday to choose a new president
to succeed the popular Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Opinion polls suggest the governing Workers’ Party
candidate Dilma Rousseff had a clear lead over Jose Serra of the opposition
Social Democratic Party.
Ms Rousseff has enjoyed the full support of President
Lula, who is leaving office after two terms with record popularity ratings.
If she wins, she will become Brazil’s first woman president.
More than 130 million voters were going to polling
stations all across Brazil which opened at 1000GMT and are due to close at
2000GMT.
Brazil uses an electronic voting system, and final
results are expected within hours of the polls closing.
This second round of voting was forced after Ms Rousseff
fell short of the 50% needed in the 3 October first round. She won 47% to Mr
Serra’s 33%.
Several opinion polls published at the weekend suggested
Ms Rousseff could win the second round with a lead of 10 to 12 percentage
points.
She flashed a victory sign and gave a big smile to
photographers after casting her vote in the southern city of Porto Alegre.
The rival candidates both held their final campaign
rallies on Saturday in Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, which is seen as a key
swing state.
Ms Rousseff exuded confidence as she toured the city in
an open-topped car.
“I will govern for all Brazilians. There will be no
discrimination of parties. I will not govern only for my coalition”, she
said.
Across town, Mr Serra insisted he was still very much in
the race.
“The real opinion poll is the ballot box,” he
said, urging his supporters to keep fighting for every last vote.
The BBC’s Paulo Cabral in Sao Paulo says Mr Serra has
done better than many people expected in a campaign filled with personal
attacks and corruption allegations.
But our correspondent says it has been an uphill struggle
to take votes away from a government boasting 80% approval ratings.
President Lula
has campaigned hard for Ms Rousseff
The key factor will be how some 20 million Brazilians who
backed the Green Party’s Marina Silva in the first round will vote.
Ms Silva has not endorsed any candidate.
Jose Serra, 68, is a former governor of Sao Paulo,
Brazil’s most populous state, and a former health minister.
Campaigning under the slogan “Brazil can do
more”, he has promised better management of government rather than a
radical change of policy.
Ms Rousseff, 62, President Lula’s former chief of staff,
has never before run for elected office.
She has promised to continue policies that have helped
bring years of strong economic growth.
Mr Lula has been active and highly visible in her
election campaign. He has to step down after completing the maximum allowed two
consecutive terms.
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