The Brazilian government said Wednesday that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would not attend the UN General Assembly meeting because he is focusing on the country’s general elections scheduled on October 3.
The 65th UN General Assembly meeting will take place in New York later this month, which will be the last one in Lula’s presidency. Representatives from all of the 192 UN member nations are expected to attend the meeting.
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will attend the meeting as a representative of President Lula who had never missed a General Assembly meeting during his presidency.
President Lula would like to stay in Brazil to support his candidate for succession, former Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff. The latest election polls showed an easy victory for Rousseff.