BRAZIL: Brazilians began voting for a new president yesterday in an election that could put an elected left-wing leader in office for the first time in Latin America's largest country.
Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former trade unionist, will make history if he turns his large lead in polls into an outright victory in the fourth election since Brazil returned to democracy after its 1964-85 military rule.
The prospect has already unsettled financiers in Brazil and on Wall Street.
On the eve of election day, Workers' Party leader Mr Lula had reached 50 per cent support in a leading poll, although another survey indicated he was still just short of the clear majority he needs for an outright victory to avoid an October 27th run-off.
Mr Lula finished second in each of the three previous elections in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
Over 115 million people in the world's fourth largest democracy will vote, from the vast Amazon basin in the north to the sprawling industrial cities of the south.
All votes will be punched into 406,000 computerised ballot boxes - some of them powered by car batteries in jungle areas - in what has been billed as the biggest electronic election in the world.
In Rio de Janeiro, 40,000 soldiers and police have been called in to protect voters after drug lords threatened to stop slum dwellers from voting in their struggle for power with the state government.
Leading issues for Brazilians are unemployment, rising crime and one of the world's worst disparities between rich and poor, a country where gleaming condominiums overlook slums.
But for investors who have poured money into Brazil under the free-market policies of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the concern is over Mr Lula's ability to run the world's ninth largest economy, which has a debt of $260 billion.
At a time of economic trouble elsewhere in Latin America, what happens in its biggest country is vital for regional stability.
Brazil's markets tumbled over the last six months as Mr Lula forged ahead in the polls, over the investors' favourite Mr Jose Serra, the candidate of the ruling coalition. But lately there have been signs that investors are resigned to a Lula government.
Mr Lula, a former strike leader who was jailed during the dictatorship, has moved away from his radical past and now professes moderate economic policies while trying to improve social programs, from health to education. A poll released on Saturday showed he has convinced many with his "Lula light" style, for the first time giving him 50 per cent of the vote. A second round could lead to a realignment of alliances which might thwart Mr Lula.
Mr Serra had 22 per cent in the poll, but was not assured of second place. Former Rio state governor Mr Anthony Garotinho was snapping at his heels. Another left-leaning candidate, Mr Ciro Gomes, was languishing in fourth after a good start.