Brazil on brink of new era as Lula sweeps in
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Your support makes all the difference.Brazil stood on the brink of a new political era last night as the country headed towards electing the former trade union leader Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva president of the world's fourth largest democracy.
With 66 per cent of the vote counted, Lula as he is universally known was leading his opponent, Jose Serra, a conservative economist backed by the outgoing centrist coalition of President Fernando Enrique Cardoso, by a margin of 61 per cent to 39 per cent.
Having narrowly failed to secure the required outright majority in the first round on 6 October, the left-wing candidate seemed poised for a landslide victory against Mr Serra.
Even before the result was known, his supporters careered through the streets of Brazilian cities, wrapped in the red-starred flag of his Workers' Party and blowing car horns. "This is the happiest moment of my life," Lula said as he raised his hands in triumph, his wife, Marisa, at his side.
His victory, however, could send shockwaves through Latin America, pose tricky problems for Brazil's relationship with the United States and call into question the very philosophy underlying the development aid policies practised by the world's financial institutions.
Lula, a former activist from Sao Paulo and an opponent of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil until 1985, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the so-called "Washington Consensus" that says open markets, privatisation, and tight monetary policy offer the best way forward for developing nations.
But Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said President George Bush "congratulates the winner of the election and looks forward to working productively with Brazil".
In recent weeks, Lula has softened his anti-capitalist rhetoric and moved to reassure jittery financial markets by picking a leading industrialist as his vice-presidential running mate, and indicating that the conservative economist Sergio Werlang could be the next head of the country's central bank.
That, coupled with an emergency IMF loan of $30bn (£19bn), has taken some of the pressure off the real problem, Brazil's battered currency.
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