Brazil candidates debate, polls show Rousseff favorite

There were some heated encounters as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (pictured right), who polls show is likely to win a new term, took on challengers in the last televised debate on Thursday ahead of a first round presidential runoff.

Rousseff, of the Workers' Party (PT) said fighting corruption would be a priority for her government and announced tough penalties for those who misuse public money.

"No-one is immune to corruption," said Rousseff. "There are corrupt people everywhere, but institutions must be capable of ensuring that all crimes are investigated and punished."

Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) candidate Marina Silva (pictured left), a relative late-comer to the presidential race, accused Rousseff of failing to respect the autonomy of Brazil's central bank. Silva, an environmentalist who has nevertheless proposed some pro-market policies, has said she would give the bank independence.

Also in the debate was centrist candidate Aecio Neves, of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). He hit out at Rousseff over a scandal involving the state-operated oil giant Petrobras in which members of the government ae accused of taking kickbacks.

Despite accusations that she has not done enough to deal with corruption, polls produced by the research groups Ibope and Datafolha showed late on Thursday that Rousseff has won back a comfortable lead over Silva, who at one point appeared to have built up a convincing lead over the incumbent.

Neves not far behind

Both polls showed that - in a first round involving all of the candidates - Rousseff had increased her lead to 16 percentage points, having attained 40 percent of voter support. Silva managed just 24 percent - putting her only a little above Neves, who had 19 percent in the Ibope poll and 20 percent in the Datafolha survey.

In any head-to-head second-round race between the top two candidates, which would take place if neither candidate secured more than 50 percent of the vote, the Thursday Datafolha poll showed Roussef on 48 percent with Silva on 41. The Ibope poll, meanwhile, shows Rousseff 43-to-36 ahead.

The announcement of Silva's candidature, which followed the death of previous PSB candidate Eduardo Campos in a plane crash. Silva's selection, couple with sympathy for the party in the wake of Campos' death, initially led to a welter of support for the PSB, with Silva tipped to beat Rousseff should the election go to a head-to-head runoff.

Rousseff's campaign showed signs of bouncing back early last month. Silva is thought to have lost ground, in part, after a barrage of criticism for Rousseff that her pro-market policies represented a threat to the country's poor.

rc/jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)