Sao Paulo, Oct 13 (IANS/EFE) Ecologist Marina Silva, who obtained the third-most votes in Brazil's Oct 5 presidential election, has declared her support for Sen. Aecio Neves in the upcoming runoff, in which the social democrat will face incumbent Dilma Rousseff.
"Taking into account the commitments made by Aecio Neves, I declare my vote and my support for his candidacy," said Silva, who obtained 21.1 percent of the votes in Oct 5 first electoral round, in a statement to the press Sunday.
Silva said that she was not giving her support to Neves in exchange for any agreement and was doing so merely as a "citizen", given that the coalition of parties who supported her in the first round have already expressed their particular positions on the matter.
Six of the members of the coalition have expressed their support for Neves, one minority party said it was remaining neutral and the Sustainability Network, the movement headed by Silva which aspires to become an independent party, has only told its supporters not to vote for Rousseff.
The ecologist expressed support for the commitments made by Neves, who had backed the principles of sustainable development, maintaining the social programmes launched by Rousseff and long-standing positions of Brazil's left, which he said have been "neglected" by Rousseff, including agrarian reform and defence of Indians' rights.
In the first electoral round, Rousseff garnered 41.59 percent of the votes, followed by Neves with 33.55 percent, and the two top vote-getters will go up against each other in the runoff, to be held Oct 26.
According to a voter intention poll released Saturday by the Sensus survey firm, Neves is currently favoured to win the election with 58.8 percent of the votes, compared to 41.2 percent for Rousseff.
--IANS/EFE
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