REPEAT: Brazil's Cardoso Has 51.0% Vote, Lula 34.2% - 61% Tallied
Dow Jones Newswires
BRASILIA -- As election returns trickle in Monday afternoon, Brazilian
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has slightly widened his lead over
his nearest challenger and continues with the majority of votes needed to
win in the first round.
With 61% of the voting districts reporting, the Electoral Court said
Cardoso, of the Social Democratic Party (PSDB), had 51.0% of the valid
votes, up from 50.4% early in the day.
His main challenger, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from the leftist Workers'
Party (PT), won 34.2% of the votes, down from 35.2% in the morning.
The third candidate, Ciro Gomes, of the Popular Socialist Party (PPS),
had dipped to 11.1% from 11.3%.
A presidential spokesman said that final results aren't expected until
Friday.
Of the 58 million votes counted thus far, 9.5 million were either blank or
voided. Voting was obligatory for the 106 million Brazilians between the
ages of 18 and 70.
So far, neither Cardoso or Lula have made public statements.
The presidential spokesman said that Cardoso wouldn't be making any
comments until results were official. Lula was expected to give a news
conference on Monday, but media reported that he had also declined to
speak until results were final.
-By Mary Milliken; (55-11) 813-1988; mmilliken@ap.org |
