Brazilians Vote Today in First Presidential Election Since ’60

RIO DE JANEIRO —  After nearly three decades without voting for a president, Brazilians go to the polls today in search of someone to lead this nation of 145 million people out of a disheartening economic and social morass.

It will be the first popular presidential election since 1960 in Latin America’s biggest country.

According to a public opinion survey published Tuesday, the leading candidate is centrist reformer Fernando Collor de Mello, 40. But he is unlikely to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a December runoff against the No. 2 finisher. Three candidates of the left and center-left are battling for second place.

Dominant themes in the campaign have been the country’s crippling inflation, economic stagnation, widespread poverty, frightening urban crime, government inefficiency and official corruption.

Although leftists label Collor as a right-winger, polls show that his greatest support comes from the poorest classes. In the survey published Tuesday by the Brazilian affiliate of Gallup, he was favored by 27% of those interviewed.

While that is down from the more than 40% favoring him in early September, he still had more than twice the percentage given to any other contender. The latest Gallup survey showed:

-- Leftist candidate Luis Inacio da Silva, 44, known by the nickname “Lula,” with 13.1%.

-- Left-leaning populist Leonel Brizola, 67, with 12.7%.

-- And center-leftist Mario Covas, 59, with 11%.