Brazil’s Lula drops out of presidential race, mostly because he’s in jail
Curitiba — On Tuesday, Brazil’s jailed ex-leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tapped his running mate Fernando Haddad to replace him on the ballot in next month’s presidential election, bowing out of the race after he was barred from seeking a new term. The switch was approved at a meeting of the Workers Party in the southern city of Curitiba — where Lula has been held on corruption charges since April — as the clock ticked down on a court-ordered deadline for him to name a stand-in. "The decision has been made," a party official told AFP. Hundreds of Lula supporters gathered near the jail where he is being held. Haddad read a letter there from his mentor, rubber-stamping him as his political heir. "It is time to get out on the streets, with heads high, and win this election!" The decision came less than two weeks after Brazil’s superior electoral tribunal ruled that the popular but polarising former president cannot run while serving his 12-year prison sentence. Though jailed, Lula wa...
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