Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is emerging as the slight favourite ahead of Sunday’s election decider.<br /><br />The incumbent has been comforted by several opinion polls giving her a slight edge over her rival Aecio Neves.<br /><br />Rousseff’s last week of campaigning before the presidential vote has taken her to Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, and to a car factory at Pernambuco in northern Brazil with her Workers’ Party predecessor, ex-president Inacio Lula Da Silva.<br /><br />In a campaign speech, Rousseff accused Neves of wanting to privatise state-run banks. <br /><br />“Who wants to diminish the role of public banks?” she asked. “That idea only interests those who have a very narrow vision of the reality of Brazil, or those who want to develop a private sector that has no interest in financing social programmes.”<br /><br />Rousseff’s centrist opponent insists he will preserve those programmes while curbing spending and taming inflation.<br /><br />The challenge for Aecio Neves is to convince voters that what he touts as business-friendly policies will not penalise workers.<br /><br />Campaigning at Mato Grosso do Sul in southwestern Brazil, Neves again accused Rousseff of mismanaging the economy and doing nothing as a corruption scandal engulfed Brazil’s largest company.<br /><br />“Everyone is responsible for their own actions and the fact is that during these last 12 years of Workers’ Party governments, a gang has systematically embedded itself throughout those 12 years, holding onto a base of government support,” he said.<br /><br />One opinion poll suggests Brazilians who are turned off by the negative tone of the campaign blame the challenger more than they do the current president.<br /><br />Another problem for Neves is that many voters say they are increasingly confident that the economy is looking up – and may be more inclined to stick with Rousseff.
