Brazil election: Jailed ex-leader Lula drops out

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Brazil's jailed ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday tapped his running mate Fernando Haddad to replace him on the ballot in next month's presidential election, bowing out of the race after he was barred from seeking a new term.

The switch was approved at a meeting of the Workers Party in the Brazilian city of Curitiba, where Lula has been held since April for corruption, as the clock ticked down on a court-ordered deadline for him to name a stand-in.

"The decision has been made," a party official told AFP.

The Brazil's Workers Party president Gleisi Hoffmann (3rd R) speaks next to presidential candidate Fernando Haddad (C) while making the official announcement of his candidacy outside the Federal Police Superintendence, Curitiba, Brazil, September 11, 2018./VCG Photo‍

Hundreds of Lula supporters gathered near the prison where he is being held. Haddad was expected to read a letter there from his mentor, appointing him as his political heir.

The decision comes less than two weeks after Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal ruled that the former president cannot run while serving his 12-year prison sentence.

Though jailed, the 72-year-old Lula was the frontrunner in polls, and his removal from the race has scrambled the field, catapulting right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro to the fore.

Bolsonaro, a polarizing figure who has been criticized for outbursts deemed as racist, misogynist and homophobic, was stabbed while on the campaign trail last week.

Brazilian former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves from a window of the Metallurgical Union, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, April 7, 2018./VCG Photo

He is not expected to appear at any rallies before the October 7 polls, but remains on the ballot.

Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo who also served as Lula's education minister, faces a race against time with the first round of voting scheduled in less than a month.

His ability to hold on to Lula's base will be key if he and his expected running mate, youthful communist Manuela d'Avila, are to reach the second round, set for October 28.

Clean slate rules

Haddad's political career put him at the center of the Workers Party, but without ever emerging from Lula's shadow. The 55-year-old has displayed little of the star power of his mentor.

A poll released on Monday by Datafolha, a polling institute, shows Haddad with nine percent support, up five points from a month ago.

Fernando Haddad visiting Lula in prison at the Federal Police headquarters, Curitiba, Brazil, September 10, 2018/VCG Photo

That places him in a mix of candidates aspiring to go to a second round of voting against Bolsonaro, who currently is out front at 26 percent.

Lula was convicted in July 2017 of taking a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in the form of a luxury seaside apartment in return for contracts with state oil giant Petrobras.

Numerous appeals of the conviction and sentence have failed, and his lawyers also have been unable to get around rules that have kept Lula off the ballot.

Supporters of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva protesting outside the Federal Police Superintendence, Curitiba, Brazil, September 11, 2018./VCG Photo

He faces trial in five other cases, but insists he is the innocent victim of politically motivated prosecutions to keep him out of office.

Source(s): AFP