Leftist Lula looks headed for presidency in Brazil

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday October 07, 2002 02:49 by Anthony Faiola in Rio De Janeiro

Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, the leftist union leader, has run in Brazil's last three presidential elections. Each time, Dario Barberio - and most of his countrymen - voted for someone else. But as Brazilians headed to the ballot boxes yesterday for a vote in which Lula, 56, appears poised for victory, Mr Barberio, 41, found himself lining up to buy a Lula campaign pin in the shape of a little red star.

Like millions of other mainstream voters in Latin America's largest nation, the tall, laid-back Mr Barberio now supports Lula and his Workers' Party. A bearded former metalworker, Lula will make history if he turns his large lead in polls into an outright victory to become the first president from Brazil's working class and the first elected leftist leader.

Like many others, Mr Barberio, a former telecommunications equipment salesman, initially embraced the "Brazilian dream" promised by globalisation. "We bought a new Fiat and refurbished our flat," said Mr Barberio, who, like millions of Brazilians, had access to credit for the first time in his life. "For us, life was good - for a while."

But Mr Barberio has been struggling to get by since he lost his job three years ago. That was when Brazil slipped into the currency crisis that exploded in 1999 after foreign investors panicked as they contemplated economic meltdowns in East Asia and Russia.

Brazil's economy, the world's eighth-largest, has mostly floundered since then, sending average real wages tumbling 1.8per cent since 1998 and unemployment rising to 8.9percent. The nation of 170million people is now weathering another economic crisis as its currency and bonds undergo another pummelling by investors, who fear Brazil may default on its $US260billion ($475billion) national debt in a repeat of the financial collapse in neighbouring Argentina in January.

The financial turmoil has aided Lula's campaign. Many Brazilians see the nose-diving currency and reports of pending economic doom as yet another example of their lives being hijacked by faceless financiers. Opinion polls show Lula could win an outright majority of the votes in the first round, which he needs to avoid a run-off. Even if he is forced into a run-off - which would be held on October 27, his 57th birthday - Lula is likely to go into it with an overwhelming lead.

Top polling firms show him with a 25-point lead over his closest competitor, Jose Serra, the Government-backed candidate and a centrist.