VOA慢速英语2018--前巴西总统大选出局

Former Brazilian President Out of Presidential Election

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on supporters to vote for the man named to replace him on the Workers’ Party ticket in October’s election.

On Tuesday, Lula said, “I want everyone who would vote for me to vote for Fernando Haddad for president of Brazil. From now on, he will be Lula for millions of Brazilians.”

Lula is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption¹. He was barred from running by the top electoral court last month. The Worker’s Party has filed appeals to keep Lula on the ticket. But the party confirmed Haddad as Lula’s replacement² after a meeting last night.

Haddad and Lula are close in their political views and are said to be friends. But for many voters in Brazil, they are also very different.

Lula is easily the more recognizable of the two politicians. He was president of Brazil between 2003 and 2010. Haddad is largely unknown outside of Sao Paulo, where he was he was mayor for four years. Before running for mayor in 2012, Haddad served as education minister under both Lula and former president Dilma Rousseff.

A poll published on Monday shows Haddad in fourth place with support from just 9 percent of those questioned. Jair Bolsonaro leads with 24 percent. Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign event last week. He remains³ in the hospital and is expected to recover.

The Worker’s Party hopes Haddad will gain more support after Lula’s endorsement⁴ Tuesday. Haddad delivered his first speech as the candidate in front of the building where Lula is jailed.

He said, “I feel the pain of many Brazilians who won’t be able to vote for who they want. But now is not the time to have your head down.”

The elections will be held October 7. If no candidate wins a majority of the votes, a runoff will be held October 28.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in this Story

endorsement – n. a public or official statement of support or approval

runoff – n. an additional race, contest, or election that is held because an earlier one has not resulted in a winner

1 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

2 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。