Brazil's poor set to repay Lula aid with votes

PIRIPIRI, Brazil, Sep 19 (Reuters) A line of haggard women inches toward a savings bank in the heat of this dusty town in Brazil's northeast to get government aid that helps them survive -- and which is likely to ensure a second election victory next month for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

''Lula is like having a wealthy father in government, of course I'll vote for him,'' said 25-year-old Rosinette Pereira, who gets 45 dollars a month because her husband's income of 12 reais a day as a farm hand does not feed their five children.

Lula will spend 3.86 billion dollars this year on his flagship welfare program Bolsa Familia, or Family Bonus, helping him remain popular among the poor and defend a solid polling lead over his main rival, former Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin.

Lula came to power in January 2003 pledging to improve income distribution in a nation where chauffeured elites in fenced-in villas often spend more money on their pets than their servants from the surrounding shantytowns earn.

Despite only moderate economic growth, millions of Brazilians have benefited from higher wages, lower inflation, and expanded welfare programs under the Lula administration.

Anyone earning less than 120 reais a month qualifies for Lula's Family Bonus.

But there is still desperate poverty in areas like rural Piaui state, where 60 per cent of the population lives on less than 1 dollars a day. Women carry muddy water in old paint tins across the barren land, while scrawny children play besides the carcasses of animals killed by drought. Rickety shacks made of crumbling clay bricks and thatched roofs line the roadside.

Army engineers sent by Lula to pave the road take refuge under a tree from the sun. At a rest stop, truckers and farmers mock Alckmin's TV ads proposing government spending cuts.

''There is no state here and this guy wants to cut it further,'' said one elderly man.

Lula's image as a common man carries many votes here. He migrated from the northeast and shined shoes before becoming a union leader in Sao Paulo.

''Lula knows poverty, he is one of us,'' says Rosa Maria Magalhaes, a 38 year-old housewife in the welfare line in Altos town.

BENEVOLENT POPULISM She played down the importance of corruption scandals involving Lula aides over the past year.

''If Lula steals so much, why is there more money for us than before?'' Magalhaes said.

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