BRAZIL:
Lula, More than Ever 'Father of the Poor'
Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) - After his landslide victory in Sunday's runoff election, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised that his first step would be to push through political reforms, and underlined that the poor will remain the top priority in his second term, which begins Jan. 1.

Brazil's political parties must be strengthened, the president said in his first post-election speech late Sunday in the southern city of Sao Paulo. Lula took 61 percent of the vote, or 58.3 million votes -- 11. 6 million more than in the first round on Oct. 1, according to the electoral court.

His rival, the centre-right Geraldo Alckmin, won 39 percent, or 37.5 million votes, setting a new record by losing 2.4 million votes between the first and second rounds.

The outcome shows that Lula recovered a large part of the votes he had lost as a result of a scandal that broke out on Sept. 15, in which members of his left-wing Workers' Party (PT) were implicated in a scheme to purchase information from shady businessmen to carry out a smear campaign accusing opposition candidates of corruption.

The need for political reform has become more urgent than ever due to allegations of corruption, which have affected nearly one-third of the 594 members of Congress since last year; the large number of legislators who switch party for personal convenience, thus distorting electoral results; and the chaotic local alliances cobbled together in these elections.

Lula announced his intention of engaging in dialogue with all of the parties, including the opposition. After elections, "there are no adversaries; the adversary now is social injustice," he said.

The president received overwhelming support from low-income voters. In the northeast, Brazil's poorest state, he garnered 77 percent of the vote. In three impoverished states, that proportion stood at an extraordinary 82 percent.

Lula has become "the father of the poor" after expanding the country's social plans, especially the family stipend programme that benefits 11 million households in this country of 186 million, raising the minimum wage, and putting an emphasis on availability of microcredits and on cutting the costs of essential consumer goods.

These programmes will inevitably be strengthened. Although they are criticised by the opposition as "assistentialist", independent studies have shown that they have begun to reduce Brazil's enormous social inequalities.

Another of Lula's campaign pledges, to raise gross domestic product (GDP) growth to five percent as of next year, is seen as a necessary condition for expanding the redistribution of national income, although it would appear to be an even more difficult challenge.

Several of Lula's current ministers, including Finance Minister Guido Mántega, announced that the new priority will be to accelerate GDP growth, which last year amounted to just 2.3 percent and will not be much higher this year.

This mediocre performance was a focus of criticism from the opposition, who pointed by contrast to the eight to 10 percent growth seen in countries like Argentina and China.

The ministers say the times of "obsessive" containment of inflation, achieved through high interest rates and fiscal adjustment policies that have kept a lid on economic growth, have come to an end. However, Lula said in his speech that his government would maintain its strict fiscal austerity policies, to reduce the public debt.

Question marks also surround the issue of governability. Lula faces another four years in office with a PT weakened by a string of scandals and the resultant crisis that led to three overhauls of the party leadership over the past year.

A party congress next year will reorganise the PT and clearly define its relations with the government, as well as rules of internal discipline, announced the party's acting president, Marco Aurelio García.

With 83 seats in the 513-member lower house and an even smaller minority in the Senate, the PT depends on coalitions to give it the majority it needs to govern.

The difficulty of earning the necessary legislative support led ruling party lawmakers to pay bribes to allied legislators to ensure their votes on government bills, triggering the scandal in which dozens of members of the lower house of Congress were involved last year.

On the other hand, Lula will have a number of allies in the state governments, which have tremendous clout in Brazilian politics. In fact, the central government will enjoy the support of two-thirds of the country's 27 governors, five of whom belong to the PT.

Ten governors were also elected in Sunday's runoff vote. The biggest surprise was the victory of Jackson Lago of the leftist Democratic Labour Party, in the northeastern state of Maranhao, who put an end to the Sarney family's four-decade domination of local politics. Lago defeated Roseana Sarney, the daughter of senator and former president José Sarney (1985-1990).

Women's rights activists also had reasons to celebrate. Three female candidates won gubernatorial posts Sunday, after failing to win a single state in the first round of voting.