ALCKMIN IS PSDB CANDIDATE

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000278 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN/LEZNY NSC FOR SCRONIN DEPT OF TREASURY FOR FPARODI USDOC FOR 332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSEN/ADRISCOLL/MWARD USDOC ALSO FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/EOLSON/DDEVITO/DANDERSON STATE PASS EXIMBANK STATE PASS OPIC FOR DMORONESE, NRIVERA, CMERVENNE DOL FOR ILAB MMITTELHAUSER TAGS: PINR PGOV BR SUBJECT: ALCKMIN IS PSDB CANDIDATE REF: (A) BRASILIA 502; (B) BRASILIA 460 (C) SAO PAULO 260 (D) SAO PAULO 73 ¶1. Senator Tasso Jereissati, President of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB),announced from state party headquarters headquarters in Sao Paulo March 14 that Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin is the party's nominee for president. The announcement ends over two months of uncertainty and infighting within the PSDB between supporters of Alckmin and Sao Paulo Mayor Jose Serra. According to press reports, Serra spoke with Alckmin for forty minutes today and said he would end his pre-candidacy in the interests of party unity and to avoid having to contest a primary. ¶2. Alckmin had announced January 9 his intention to run for President, but Serra was considered the front-runner by most observers. He had been the PSDB candidate in 2002, and polls showed him with a much better chance than Alckmin of defeating President Lula in the October elections. But Lula's resurgence in the polls in January and February undermined that argument and made a race look much more difficult. Moreover, Serra was reluctant to announce his candidacy unless there was strong party consensus behind him, since in order to run he would have had to resign as Mayor by March 31 with almost three years remaining in his term. Alckmin must resign as Governor, but his term ends in January 2007 and he was ineligible to run for re-election. Some close to the PSDB have predicted in recent days that Serra may resign anyway to run for Governor to avoid having that important political post fall to a candidate from Lula's Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT). ¶3. Mission Brazil will provide more details, analysis, and biographic information via septel. MCMULLEN