Brasilia: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was fined for campaigning for his chosen successor well before such promotional activities were permitted.
Lula was ordered to pay USD 2,800 for putting his leftwing chief minister, Dilma Rousseff, under the electoral limelight during the inauguration of a sports complex in May last year.
The supreme electoral court yesterday determined that he jumped the gun nearly a year ahead of the official start of campaigning in April this year.
According to the latest electoral polls, by the Ibope Institute, Roussef still trailed the leading presidential hopeful, Sao Paulo's conservative governor Jose Serra, but narrowed the gap to just five percentage points.
PTI
First Published: Friday, March 19, 2010, 11:13