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Brazil's leftist Lula chooses centrist running mate
Brazil's leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, leading opinion polls for a victorious return to the top job in October elections, named centrist politician Geraldo Alckmin Friday as his vice-presidential running mate.
Widely projected to beat far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the vote, Lula is representing the Worker's Party in alliance with the Socialist Party which Alckmin, 69, recently joined.
"We need Alckmin's experience and mine to fix Brazil," Lula told reporters in Sao Paulo.
Lula, 76, has not officially declared he is running, but has been campaigning nevertheless.
The election is expected to be deeply polarized between Lula on the left and Bolsonaro on the right, with no viable centrist alternative.
Alckmin, formerly of the Social Democratic Party which he cofounded and a Socialist Party member since last month, ran against Lula in elections in 2006 but lost by a wide margin.
Today, the former governor of Sao Paulo is Lula's best bet for expanding his voter base towards the center.
For his part, Alckmin has vowed to "reconstruct" and "democratize" a country he said was run by a government "that threatens democracy and institutions."
A Datafolha opinion poll last month showed Lula leading the race with 43 percent of voter intention, followed by Bolsonaro, 67, with 26 percent.
O. Petrow--BTZ
