Brazil’s Lula da Silva, languishing in jail, finally ends his presidential bid and names running mate as successor

Fernando Haddad will now represent Lula’s leftist Workers Party in next month’s presidential election

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In this file picture taken on August 7, Manuela D'Avila (left), of Brazil's Communist Party jokes during a press conference with former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, of the Workers Party, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Haddad has stepped up as the Workers Party’s presidential candidate after the withdrawal of jailed ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose photo serves as a backdrop at the press conference. D'Avila was named as Haddad's running mate. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 9:37am, 12 Sep 2018Updated: 9:29pm, 12 Sep 2018

Brazil’s most popular politician, imprisoned former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on Tuesday ended his legal battle to run for the presidency again in next month’s election.

Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, head of the leftist Workers Party (PT) that Lula founded, made the announcement in the southern city of Curitiba, where Lula has been jailed on corruption charges since April.

Lula had stepped aside to allow running mate Fernando Haddad to stand for the presidency, Hoffman said. A letter from the ex-president was read out to supporters who have been keeping vigil outside the federal police headquarters where Lula – who maintains his innocence – is being held.

“A man can be unjustly imprisoned, but not his ideas,” Lula wrote in the letter, read aloud by founding PT member Luiz Eduardo Greenhalgh. “We are millions of Lulas and from today Fernando Haddad will be Lula for millions of Brazilians.”

Workers' Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad arrives to attend a campaign rally outside federal police headquarters where former President Luiz inacio Lula da Silva is jailed for corruption, in Curitiba, Brazil, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Lula, serving a 12-year sentence for a graft conviction, was president from 2003-2010. He is ineligible for office under Brazil’s “Clean Slate” law, which prohibits candidates from running if they have convictions that have been upheld on appeal.

Support for Haddad, a 55-year-old former mayor of Sao Paulo, is rising, according to opinion polls released this week, but he does not have the national name recognition of Lula and still lags his rivals.