Campaigning For Brazil Presidential Election Begins
Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published August 17, 2018 | 03:57 AM
Bras�lia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Aug, 2018 ) :Campaigning for Brazil's wildly unpredictable presidential race officially got under way on Thursday with jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's name amongst the 13 candidates formally registered.
Candidates and their parties are now authorized to petition voters on the streets and online ahead of the October 7 poll.
Around a hundred participants from Lula's powerful leftist Workers' Party campaigned in front of Sao Paulo's Municipal Theater while Ciro Gomes of the center-left Democratic Workers' Party took to the streets of northern Rio de Janeiro promising to "save Brazil." Environmentalist candidate Marina Silva, one of the front-runners, visited a health center in Sao Paulo while releasing an internet video calling on Brazilians to "make the change," after twice before falling short in presidential elections.
Former banker Henrique Meirelles of the center-right Democratic Movement party of unpopular outgoing President Michel Temer, promised on social media to deliver economic growth.
Former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin of the center-right Social Democratic Party was due to take part in a women's meeting in his stronghold later in the day.
Campaigning, though, won't deflect from the major talking point in these elections, over whether or not the incarcerated Lula will be allowed to stand, The 72-year-old is serving a 12-year sentence for accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe and under Brazil's clean slate law he is likely to be prevented from standing.
The electoral court has until September 17 to rule on Lula's candidacy and should he be barred, another former Sao Paulo governor, Fernando Haddad, would likely run in his place.
Lula still leads in the presidential polls ahead of right-winger Jair Bolsonaro, with Alckmin and Silva coming next.
Polls suggest voters are disillusioned with the state of their country as it struggles with recession and reels from a raft of corruption scandals.
Voting is obligatory in Brazil but some polls suggest at least a third of voters would skip it while another poll said a third were planning on deliberately spoiling their ballot.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From World
-
NFL will allow players to wear Guardian Cap helmets in games
5 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga table
5 hours ago -
Football: Italian Serie A result
5 hours ago -
Football: German Bundesliga results
5 hours ago -
US troops to leave Chad in second African state withdrawal
5 hours ago -
Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap: Canada minister
5 hours ago
-
Biden stalls on menthol cigarette ban fearing Black vote backlash
5 hours ago -
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
5 hours ago -
6,000 French police to welcome Olympic torch amid bonus boost
6 hours ago -
Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
6 hours ago -
'Ballistic' Bairstow stars as Punjab pull off record T20 chase
6 hours ago -
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 2nd update
6 hours ago