Brazil Court Fines Lula for Campaigning for Dilma

A Brazilian court has ordered President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to pay 5,000 reais ($2,803) for campaigning on behalf of his chosen successor last year while inaugurating a government-built sports complex.

The country’s highest electoral tribunal agreed with a complaint by the opposition Social Democracy Party, or PSDB, that Lula used the event in a Rio de Janeiro slum to promote the candidacy of his Cabinet chief, Dilma Rousseff.

At the May 2009 occasion, before Rousseff became the Workers’ Party candidate, Lula told a crowd of supporters shouting her name that “I hope it’s correct the prophecy that says the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper reported.

The court decided not to fine Rousseff, who was standing alongside Lula at the event televised on a government-run network, because there was no evidence she had prior knowledge of his remarks.

Lula’s Workers’ Party nominated Rousseff last month as its presidential candidate ahead of October elections. Since then, she’s been traveling around the country inaugurating public works with the president to boost her visibility. According to an Ibope poll published yesterday, 42 percent of Brazilians still say they know little about her.

The same poll showed Rousseff was favored by 30 percent of those surveyed compared with 17 percent in December. Support for the likely PSDB candidate, Jose Serra, the governor of Sao Paulo state, slipped to 35 percent from 38 percent, according to the March 6-10 survey of 2,002 likely voters. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.