Brazil Starts General Elections

Brasilia, Oct 4. -General elections in Brazil started in most parts of the country with the candidate of the Workers'' Party (PT), Dilma Rousseff, as wide favorite for winning the presidential election.

Polling stations in 20 of the 26 states and half of another, which have the time of the capital, opened exactly at 08:00 local time. The inhabitants of the state of Pernambuco also began voting for an hour.

An hour later, began the election for the inhabitants of the remaining six states.

Due to the large land area, Brazil has three time zones, so there is a maximum difference of two hours between the west and east.

Of the 22, 570 candidates for the 2010 elections, there are nine candidates for the presidency, 171 to state governors and the Federal District, 273 senators, 6, 036 for federal deputies and 15, 280 for state and district legislators.

About 135, 000, 800 Brazilians are eligible for election, whose attendance is mandatory, including the illiterate and those over 74 years.

They have the responsibility of choosing the president, 27 governors for all 26 states and the Federal District, in which Brazil is divided territorially, 54 of the 81 senators, the total of the 513 federal deputies, and members of the state and district legislatures. Brazil established the electronic voting since 1996 and this year has enabled some 480, 000 electronic voting machines in polling places in the 5, 565 municipalities.

This year will be used on an experimental basis in 60 municipalities in 23 states the biometric voting (fingerprint as identification), which must be implemented fully for the elections of 2018.

According to the results of the latest polls, 50 percent of the voting intention is to Dilma, while his closest opponent, Jose Serra, of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), has only 30 percent. (Prensa Latina)