October 29, 2002	Tuesday	Sha’aban 22,1423

SAO PAULO, Oct 28: Leftist former union chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected Brazil’s president by a landslide Sunday, in a historic vote that gave Latin America’s biggest country its first working class leader.

The head of the Workers Party (PT) had 61.46 percent of valid votes, election authorities said with 90 percent of ballots for the second round runoff counted.

Jose Serra of the ruling Brazilian Social Democratic Party, had 38.5 per cent and conceded defeat before the count was finished.

US President George W. Bush was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Lula and raucous street celebrations marked the triumph by the 57-year-old, who rode to victory on widespread discontent over Brazil’s social divide.

Attention in the United States and other countries will now be focused on whether Lula can keep promises to maintain fiscal discipline.

The election came at the height of a new financial crisis, which saw the real, the Brazilian currency, lose 40 percent of its value this year and prompted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offer a 30 billion dollar rescue package.

The crisis was widely blamed on negative investor reaction to the idea that the ex-factory worker with little formal education would become president of Brazil.—AFP