Rousseff Says Charges Against Ex-Aide Intended to Hurt Campaign

 Brazilian presidential frontrunner Dilma Rousseff said allegations of influence peddling against her former top adviser as cabinet chief are intended to hurt her campaign.

Rousseff, in a televised debate yesterday, said she continues to have the highest opinion of Erenice Guerra, who succeeded her as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s cabinet chief in March. Allegations by Veja magazine that Guerra’s son, Israel Guerra, was lobbying the government on behalf of an airline bidding for contracts with the state-run postal service should be “rigorously´´ investigated, she said.

“This is an electoral move being systematically made against me,” Rousseff, 62, said in the debate sponsored by RedeTV and Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. “The denunciation is against her son.”

The Sao Paulo-based Veja on Sept. 11 reported that a lobbying firm run by Israel Guerra allegedly charged 5 million reais ($2.9 million) in fees to help Campinas, Sao Paulo-based cargo airline MTA Linhas Aereas win a contract with the postal service worth 84 million reais.

Guerra, who worked alongside Rousseff since 2005 as the cabinet chief´s executive secretary, denied any wrongdoing. In a Sept. 11 statement she said Veja was interfering in Brazil´s presidential campaign in the ”least ethical´´ manner possible. She said she would sue the magazine for slander and provide authorities the tax, banking and telephone records of herself and her family to clear up any doubts over their actions.

‘Sidereal´ Rates

Opposition candidate Jose Serra, who is trying to surmount a 23 percentage-point lead by Rousseff before the Oct. 3 balloting, said he would reduce “sidereal” interest rates that are among the highest in the world if elected.

“Dilma defends these interest rates and this monetary policy. Not me,” said the 63-year-old Serra, a former governor of Sao Paulo state. “In my government they are going to fall. I’ll have my economic team focused on reducing rates in a responsible manner, so there are no short-term dramatic disturbances for the economy.´´

Rousseff, the candidate for Lula’s Workers’ Party, was supported by 50 percent of those surveyed in a Datafolha poll published Sept. 10, the same amount in a survey published a week earlier by the same polling firm. Serra slipped one point to 27 percent, and Green Party candidate Marina Silva advanced by the same amount to 11 percent.

The poll, conducted nationwide Sept. 8 and 9, surveyed 11,660 people. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.

A candidate must win half of all valid ballots cast to avoid a runoff four weeks later against their closest rival.