Brazilian presidential race headed for runoff

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Former union boss Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held a commanding lead in Brazil's presidential race Sunday, but appeared headed for a runoff vote, according to preliminary official results.

Silva, of the leftist Workers Party candidate, had 47 percent of the vote, just shy of the absolute majority needed for outright victory, according to preliminary figures from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

The tribunal said the tally was based on 24.4 million registered votes counted, or 21.2 percent of the total.

Government-backed candidate Jose Serra was in second with 24.7 percent support, followed by former Rio state Gov. Anthony Gartinho with 15.3 percent, according to the results.

Exit poll:Silva in the lead

Silva's supporters thronged Sao Paulo's main avenue late Sunday honking horns, waving flags and singing in anticipation he would lead the vote count. Authorities said long lines and delays at computerized voting stations nationwide had delayed the collection of results.

The burly, former lathe operator, who led his rivals throughout the campaign, surged in the late pre-election polls, fueled by frustration with Brazil's economic downturn and years of free-market reforms.

An exit poll by the prestigious Ibope institute and broadcast on TV GloboNews had Silva winning 49 percent of the vote, followed by Serra with 20 percent support, Garotinho with 17 percent and Gomes with 13 percent. Ibope said the poll had a margin of error of one percentage point.

"If he leads the country as he led the unions, he will be a great president," said Joao de Oliveira, a 54-year-old retired metalworker, who also voted at the same school in Sao Bernardo do Campo. "It is time for a worker to lead a country of workers."

In his fourth try at the presidency, Silva has softened his radical tone and doesn't alarm Brazil's neighbors. He has promised to honor Brazil's foreign debt and implement no drastic economic policy shifts. He seems more akin to Chile's pragmatic socialist President Ricardo Lagos than to Venezuela's populist leader Hugo Chavez.

Impatience for growth

Voting was peaceful. Soldiers were stationed in 10 states to guarantee order and some 3,000 soldiers reinforced the police force in Rio de Janeiro, where drug gangs have terrorized the city in recent weeks.

More than 115 million voters are registered in the election, unlike any election in decades because of the possibility of a leftist victory in the continent's most economically powerful nation.

Silva, 56, has tapped a national impatience for growth after years of stagnation under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was elected in 1994 and re-elected in 1998. Brazilian law prohibits him for running for a third term.

Brazil, the world's ninth-largest economy, has seen its currency plunge to record lows over financial market concerns about what a Silva presidency would bring.

Brazil's last leftist president, Joao Goulart, was deposed in 1964 by right-wing generals who ruled Brazil until 1985.

Silva was jailed as a subversive for leading strikes protesting the military dictatorship. In this campaign, he has shed his radical image and is now perceived by many as a moderate, attracting votes from the center.

Serra, backed by the governing Brazilian Social Democracy Party, urged voters in a final appeal to cast a ballot for "experience." The 60-year-old economist served in Congress and the Senate before becoming health minister to Cardoso.