WHEN Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finished his stint as Brazil’s president in 2011, his approval rating was 83%. His social programmes and a commodity boom helped lift 30m people out of poverty. He hopes to run for president once again in an election this October, and leads the polls by a healthy margin. Only one obstacle seems to separate him from a third term: he is serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption. He spends his days listening to samba and watching television in his cell.
Until this month, political observers mostly dismissed Lula’s chances of making a comeback. Formally, he has until August 15th to register to stand, which would trigger a review of his eligibility by the electoral tribunal. However, Brazil’s ficha limpa (“clean record”) law bars candidates whose convictions have been upheld by an appeals court, as Lula’s was in January. His only hope is for the supreme court to overturn the verdict. Some polling firms have already dropped him from...Continue reading
from Americas https://ift.tt/2JAG2a1
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment