Brazil's opposition candidates stepped up attacks on Thursday against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over corruption in an effort to trim the former union leader's solid lead in the presidential election race, according to Reuters. The heightened rhetoric follows a series of opinion polls this week that showed Lula cruising to victory in the Oct. 1 election. He has a 30 percentage point lead over former Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, who is favored by wealthier and better-educated voters. "The Lula government is a phone book of corruption," Alckmin said on Thursday in O Globo newspaper, referring to a series of political scandals ranging from embezzlement to illegal campaign funding involving politicians mostly from Lula's ruling coalition. Allies had criticized Alckmin for being too soft on Lula. But the latest ad in a TV campaign that began Aug. 15 lists more than half a dozen Lula aides who were accused of fraud. "So many ministers in the Lula government charged with corruption and Lula didn't know about anything? Lula doesn't deserve your vote," a woman says in the TV spot. Firebrand Sen. Heloisa Helena, the third-placed candidate, said in her ad that opinion polls must be mistaken. "I cannot believe that the honest Brazilian people would elect political bandits," she said. Marketeers say television and radio are the only way to reach most of the 125 million registered voters in this continent-sized country. But polls show that many viewers hit the mute button or walk away from them. Lula bounced back in the polls from a scandal in which his Workers' Party was accused of using illicit funds to finance election campaigns and pay off legislators. His comeback was helped by growing social welfare programs, higher income, and his charismatic appeal. The scandal had forced top aides to resign and brought calls for Lula's impeachment. In the latest case, dubbed "Sanguessugas," or bloodsuckers, 86 congressmen are accused of taking kickbacks in return for financing overpriced ambulances. Lula, who had promised a new era of clean politics when he took office in January 2003, focused his TV ads on brighter prospects for economic growth. "Brazil will no longer be a country of the future but a power of the present," Lula said in his broadcast. Early on Thursday, however, the government announced economic growth of only 0.5 percent in the second quarter, well below market expectations.
