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| Brazil presidential election: economy dominates as voters go to polls | Brazil presidential election: economy dominates as voters go to polls |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Millions of Brazilians go to the polls on Sunday after a presidential election dominated by the variable economic record of the incumbent, Dilma Rousseff, who is seeking a second term. | Millions of Brazilians go to the polls on Sunday after a presidential election dominated by the variable economic record of the incumbent, Dilma Rousseff, who is seeking a second term. |
| Opinion polls predict Rousseff will win but will fail to avoid a second-round runoff in three weeks. Her nearest challengers are the former environment minister Marina Silva and Aecio Neves, a former governor. | Opinion polls predict Rousseff will win but will fail to avoid a second-round runoff in three weeks. Her nearest challengers are the former environment minister Marina Silva and Aecio Neves, a former governor. |
| The campaign has been all about the economy, which has sputtered in recent years under Rousseff. The current president has sought to emphasise her party’s efforts to reduce inequality, and can also point to other indicators that have improved on her watch: the jobless rate is close to a record low at 5%, the minimum wage is up more than 50% in the past five years and tens of millions of people have risen out of poverty since the Workers’ party came to power in 2003. The bolsa familia poverty relief payments have been extended to 13.8 million families, covering almost a quarter of the population and making them a powerful political weapon. | The campaign has been all about the economy, which has sputtered in recent years under Rousseff. The current president has sought to emphasise her party’s efforts to reduce inequality, and can also point to other indicators that have improved on her watch: the jobless rate is close to a record low at 5%, the minimum wage is up more than 50% in the past five years and tens of millions of people have risen out of poverty since the Workers’ party came to power in 2003. The bolsa familia poverty relief payments have been extended to 13.8 million families, covering almost a quarter of the population and making them a powerful political weapon. |
| Her support is strongest among the lowest income groups and in the north-east, which has been Brazil’s poorest region for much of the last century but has enjoyed robust growth in the past decade. | |
| Silva, by contrast, has tapped into middle-class frustrations with corruption and a sluggish economy that has crawled for the past two years and slipped into recession last month (partly because there were so many public holidays during the World Cup). | Silva, by contrast, has tapped into middle-class frustrations with corruption and a sluggish economy that has crawled for the past two years and slipped into recession last month (partly because there were so many public holidays during the World Cup). |
| She has promised to break with the left-right politics of the past by maintaining the social policies and poverty relief payments of the Workers’ party, while adopting pro-business economic measures usually associated with the centre-right Social Democrats. She would give greater autonomy to the central bank and shift the focus of trade relations to the US, instead of regional blocks and other emerging Brics economies. If she wins, she is widely expected to co-opt many members of the Neves camp into her team. | She has promised to break with the left-right politics of the past by maintaining the social policies and poverty relief payments of the Workers’ party, while adopting pro-business economic measures usually associated with the centre-right Social Democrats. She would give greater autonomy to the central bank and shift the focus of trade relations to the US, instead of regional blocks and other emerging Brics economies. If she wins, she is widely expected to co-opt many members of the Neves camp into her team. |
| “It really is too close to call,” political analyst Rafael Cortez told Reuters. “Volatility and frustration favour opposition candidates, but you don’t really have a crisis to topple the government, either.” | “It really is too close to call,” political analyst Rafael Cortez told Reuters. “Volatility and frustration favour opposition candidates, but you don’t really have a crisis to topple the government, either.” |