Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s enforcer, is favourite to be next Brazilian president

She has never been elected to office, hardly radiates charisma and inhabits a political landscape dominated by men, but Dilma Rousseff has a great chance of becoming Brazil’s next president.

Once dismissed as simply an acolyte of her boss, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, she has clinched the ruling party’s nomination for October’s presidential election and is riding high in the polls. Analysts who wrote off Rousseff, right, now tip her as a favourite to take charge of a booming economy with almost 200 million people and become the most powerful leader – male or female – in Latin America.

Lula, who steps down with stellar ratings after eight years in office, said the first sign “that machismo will be defeated” was selecting his chief of staff as a successor. “She won’t only carry on [my legacy], but… perfect it and do much more,” he said.

An increasing number of Brazilians agree. After languishing in the polls a distant second to her conservative rival, São Paulo governor José Serra, Rousseff, 62, has closed the gap to just four points. Serra’s backers are growing anxious and in the past week a would-be running mate has cried off.

The daughter of a Belo Horizonte teacher, she became a middle-class radical and joined the underground leftist resistance to the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Details of her guerrilla days are sketchy but it is said she helped in the famous robbery of $2.4m from the safe of a corrupt former São Paulo governor. She was jailed for almost three years and tortured, including receiving electric shocks.

After democracy’s restoration she became a state energy secretary, caught Lula’s eye and became his cabinet enforcer. The former Trotskyist impressed colleagues and business leaders as a pragmatist and gifted administrator. Charming in private, Rousseff is an awkward public speaker with a somewhat dour image. Her biggest asset is Lula’s backing. “If Dilma wasn’t capable, if she had problems, I wouldn’t have proposed Dilma,” he said.

Rousseff’s challenge will be to reflect Lula’s shine while convincing voters she has her own vision of where to lead South America’s giant.