Brazil Lula wins re-election, pledges help for poor

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Oct 30 (Reuters) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was re-elected in a landslide victory, shrugging off a series of corruption scandals and emerging again as the champion of Brazil's poor and workers.

Lula, a former union leader, swept up about 61 percent of the vote in a run-off election against 39 percent for his rival Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, according to official results yesterday.

In a victory address, the bearded Lula promised to take care of the poor people whose support helped carry him to a re-election. He promised to govern Brazil for everyone but said: ''The poor will have preference in our government.'' Jubilant Lula supporters, many wearing red T-shirts, flocked to Sao Paulo's main business thoroughfare, Avenida Paulista, to celebrate waving Workers Party flags. Bands blared out dance music from trailers stacked with walls of speakers.

Lula won despite being dogged by corruption scandals involving his Worker's Party which gave ammunition to his opponents and forced the election to a second round.

''The people felt that their lives have got better. There is no contest to this. Because the people felt it on their plates, on the table, in their pockets,'' Lula said.

The acrimonious campaign behind him, he now faces the challenge of reuniting a country, forging a coalition to push through business-friendly reforms, and tackling a host of social problems including awful levels of violent crime.

About 125 million Brazilians cast ballots across the world's fourth-largest democracy, from hamlets in the Amazon rainforest to the concrete jungle and slums of the big cities.

The victory also has repercussions beyond Brazil's borders. Lula has acted a spokesman for developing nations and has defended their interests strongly, most notably in the World Trade Organisation's Doha round of trade talks.

He is also seen in Washington as a moderate leftist alternative to Venezuela's militant President Hugo Chavez.

Lula, 61, already spoke like a winner when he turned up to vote in the factory town of Sao Bernardo do Campo, where he began in politics as a union leader opposing a military dictatorship. He promised to open a dialogue with the opposition.

Support from the lower classes, who have benefited from more jobs as well as welfare programs during his four-year term, is the key to Lula's comeback.

''Lula is not indebted to the rich. He owes his success to the common Brazilian,'' said photographer Euler Peixoto, 48, who voted in a middle-class district of Sao Paulo. ''I want someone like that as my president.'' The scandals over vote-buying and bribery had threatened to torpedo Lula's political career little over a year ago. But voters said violent crime, education and heath costs were all vital issues.

Lula has won plaudits for stabilizing the economy of Latin America's largest country but the growth needed to overcome its social inequalities and to maintain its challenge to emerging market rivals India and China is still elusive.

In his address, Lula set a growth target of at least 5 per cent next year.

While some commentators have said Lula could be hobbled by compromises and a belligerent opposition in his second term, others said he now has a strong mandate to govern.

''It did him a lot of good to have a second round. There was a shock when he didn't win by a tiny percentage in the first turn but it's forced him to play to his strengths which is his ability to connect,'' Kenneth Maxwell, director of the Brazilian Studies Program at Harvard University, told Reuters.

An important opposition figure, Minas Gerais state governor Aecio Neves, said he was ready to work with the president to come up with an agenda.

''There is a time for elections and a time to build. From tomorrow, my eyes will be on the future of this country,'' Neves said.

Both Lula and Alckmin, 54, had pledged to follow the same conservative economic policies that have made Brazil a favorite on Wall Street, unlike the widely differing visions that have marked many elections in Latin America this year.

Reuters DH VP0711