Brazil opposition candidate gains key endorsement

Opposition candidate Aecio Neves has gained the key endorsement of a popular environmentalist who came third in the first round of voting. Incumbent President Dilma Rousseff is going for a second term.

Deutsche Welle, 12 Oct 2014

Marina Silva, a popular environmentalist, finished third in the first-round of Brazil's presidential election on October 5. On Sunday she gave her endorsement to the leading opposition candidate, Aecio Neves of the right-leaning Social Democracy Party.

"I will vote for Aecio and support him," she said. "I trust in the sincerity of the proposals of the candidate and his party, and I give to the Brazilian society the task to see that they are fulfilled."

The run-off is scheduled for October 26. The team around the 54-year-old Neves, a business-minded former governor, had said an endorsement from Silva would be key in their campaign to block Rousseff's bid for a second term. Neves was second in the first round vote taking 34 percent of the vote to Rousseff's 42 percent.

Neves' top economic adviser, former central bank chief Arminio Fraga, said on Friday that Neves would seek to repair ties with the United States and finalise a long-delayed free trade agreement with the European Union, if he was elected.

"We are keen to move back to a broader, more open approach to foreign policy," Fraga said.

The latest polls show Neves leading Rousseff by 46 percent to 44 percent.

jm/rc (AP, Reuters)