Opinion - Editorials   

Lula bounces back

With the re-election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil with about 60 per cent of the vote in his favour, it hardly seems to matter that he had to go through the inconvenience of a second round run-off. Lula, as he is popularly known, appeared to be coasting towards victory until a few weeks before October 1, the polling day. His campaign was thrown off balance when the Brazilian police accused six officials of his Workers' Party of involvement in an attempt to foist a case on a political rival. The officials were alleged to have tried to purchase a dossier purportedly showing that the opponent had received kickbacks in an ambulance deal. There was no evidence that Lula had personal knowledge of `Dossiergate' but the affair tarnished the image of a party caught up earlier in vote-buying and financial allegations. It was therefore no great surprise that Lula fell short of the 50 per cent vote that would have seen him through in the first round itself. With 48.65 per cent of the vote, he was seven percentage points ahead of his Social Democratic Party rival, Geraldo Alckmin. During the initial phase of the campaign for the run-off, the Workers' Party candidate appeared to be in even deeper trouble after a congressional committee enquiring into `Dossiergate' came to the conclusion that funds obtained from criminals had been used in this affair. Lula did extremely well to turn his fortunes around from such a situation.

In the final analysis, a significant majority of Brazilian voters seem to have decided that while Lula needed a rap on the knuckles, he deserved another four years to carry out his agenda. Large sections of the poor in this major developing country have made considerable gains during his first term. During 2003-05, about 19.18 per cent of those living below the poverty level moved out of this category; and almost six million people were lifted out of poverty in 2005 alone. A programme for giving below-poverty-level families stipends so long as they sent their children to school and for regular health check-ups has proved to be particularly popular. Economists believe that President Lula might be forced to take tough decisions on labour laws and pension schemes during his second term. However, the deprived sections of the Brazilian people obviously believe that the Workers' Party is more likely to serve their interests than the Social Democrats, although both organisations compete for the left-of-centre space. Lula's victory proves the relevance of pro-people politics in the developing world.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Defusing a crisis
Lula bounces back
China throws open its doors to Africa
Brain drain or mutual gain?
Will Americans hobble George Bush?
Guide to old age
Training teachers from scratch
Corrections and clarifications
Justice prevails
Politics of the veil
On homosexuality

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu