A Brazilian appeals court unanimously upheld a graft sentence against former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, likely preventing the front-runner in presidential opinion polls from seeking election this year.
Da Silva lost his appeal 3-0 against a criminal conviction for accepting an upgrade to a beachside apartment along with other benefits from a construction company in exchange for favors.
The ex-president previously denied wrongdoing, calling the charges politically motivated and saying he plans to appeal the ruling.
Photo: AFP
At stake is not only the legacy of the 72-year-old former union leader, but the future of Latin America’s largest economy. With elections scheduled in October, Da Silva currently leads the opinion polls and has pledged to roll back the market-friendly reforms of Brazilian President Michel Temer, including spending caps and the deregulation of the labor market.
While Wednesday’s verdict does not rule him out of the running for good, it does represent a significant blow to his chances.
“With this decision, the market sees the chances of Lula’s [Da Silva’s] participation in the election as very low,” Nova Futura chief economist Pedro Paulo Silveira said.
The Sao Paulo stock exchange rose more than 3.5 percent on Wednesday, while the Brazilian real was up 3 percent.
While Da Silva was a Wall Street favorite during his two terms in office from 2003 to 2010, he recently turned to his more radical group of supporters for political survival.
Adding to investor fears, a defiant Da Silva told tens of thousands of supporters on Tuesday night that he did not need financial markets anyway.
Security has been tight around the court house in Porto Alegre, with sharpshooters on rooftops, naval ships patrolling nearby waters and police cordoning off an of about 2.5km to keep protesters area at arms length.
Thousands of Da Silva’s supporters camped out in Porto Alegre during the trial.
Brazilian society is deeply divided over Da Silva, a savior of the poor to some and a reckless populist to others.
The latest Datafolha survey showed 36 percent of voters would back him in October’s election, roughly double that of his nearest rival, Jair Bolsonaro.
However, 39 percent of those questioned in the same survey said they would not consider voting for him under any circumstances.
Brazilian law determines that anyone with a criminal conviction that has been upheld in an appellate court cannot run for elected office, but Da Silva’s likely appeal would buy him time.
Workers’ Party leaders said they would launch his presidential candidacy regardless of the outcome of the trial.
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