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Social Democratic Party presidential candidate Aecio Neves received a crucial boost in Brazil's presidential election race, Sunday, with the endorsement of popular environmentalist Marina Silva two weeks before his runoff against incumbent Dilma Rousseff.Rodolfo Buhrer/Reuters

Brazil's strange electoral season turned weirder over the past few days as Marina Silva, the environmentalist and political reformer who finished third in the first round of presidential elections, endorsed the right-wing opposition candidate, Aecio Neves, in the run-off against President Dilma Rousseff.

Many of Ms. Silva's key political backers had already come out in favour of Mr. Neves, the preferred candidate of Brazilian business, but her endorsement produces a strange-bedfellows political alliance.

To woo her, Mr. Neves has added planks to his platform about ending deforestation, protecting indigenous land and carrying out agrarian reform – none of them popular with the constituency that has propelled his candidacy, including big landowners and agro-business.

Ms. Silva had many backers who were in favour of reducing the state's role in the economy, a view with aligns neatly with Mr. Neves. Yet her own personal politics – as a woman who grew up extremely poor, illiterate until she was a teenager – and as a champion of including the neglected northeast in Brazil's development, are in many ways more congruent with Ms. Rousseff and her party. Indeed, Ms. Silva is a former member of the Workers' Party (known by its Portuguese acronym PT) and was a cabinet minister in a previous PT government.

However, it seems that the virulence of Ms. Rousseff's attacks on her during the first round made it impossible for Ms. Silva to accept an alliance. In addition, AS political analyst Carlos Pereira noted, Ms. Silva may be being strategic, trusting that Mr. Neves will hold on to his lead and she might be rewarded with a key role in his governing coalition and his cabinet.

The latest poll by the national research institute IBOPE, released Thursday, shows the two candidates virtually tied. Mr. Neves had 46 per cent of decided voters and Ms. Rousseff 44, with a margin of error of 2 per cent. The run-off vote is on Oct. 26.

It is not clear how much Ms. Silva's endorsement will be worth – most analysts estimate that about 70 per cent of her voters were already going to support Mr. Neves.

Making the endorsement, Ms. Silva said Ms. Rousseff had taken the country backward in her four years in power, and that an "alternation of power will be good for Brazil." (Ms. Rouseff's Workers' Party and Mr. Neves' Social Democracy Party have, between them, led all of Brazil's governments since the restoration of democracy in 1989). "I will vote for Aecio and support him," Ms. Silva said, adding that she was "giving a vote of confidence to the sincerity of the candidate and his party, and, mainly, giving the Brazilian society the task of demanding the [commitments] are honoured."

On the eve of her endorsement, Mr. Neves released a policy document called Together for Democracy, Social Inclusion and Sustainable Development, aimed at wooing left-wing voters who had supported Ms. Silva – and perhaps some of Ms. Rousseff's as well.

It was a gesture intended to invoke a seminal moment in Brazilian politics 12 years ago, when Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, then the candidate of the leftist PT, released a "Letter to Brazilians" in which he pledged not to alter the macroeconomic policies that had seen Brazil experience an initial wave of growth.

The tactic was a success: Mr. da Silva was elected and served two terms as a hugely popular president. Mr. Neves's document is a sort of inverse, in which he pledges to maintain the Workers' Party social safety net, while reducing the deficit and checking inflation.

Ms. Rousseff brushed off the value of Ms. Silva's endorsement of her rival. "I don't believe votes can automatically be transferred," she said, speaking at a campaign event in Sao Paulo. She called the endorsement predictable, saying Ms. Silva and Mr. Neves share a desire to reduce the role of public banks, which would shrink credit access for the poor, and eliminate a popular housing program. "There are things I won't add to my platform nem que a vaca tussa," or "not even if the cow coughs," a Brazilian expression that means "not in a million years."

Ms. Rouseff's campaign of negative ads about Ms. Silva "backfired on her because it allowed Aecio a free ride without any criticism – now he has a lot of leverage," noted Prof. Pereira, a researcher with the Brazilian School of Public and Business Adminstration in Rio. Ms. Rousseff is expected now to step up her attacks on Mr. Neves, focusing on the idea that he will cut back social programs.

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