Rio 2016 Chief Satisfied with Brazilian Presidential Candidates

(ATR) The head of the organizing committee for the 2016 Olympics says all the leading candidates for the Brazilian presidency are committed to the Games.

"We had interviews with all the leading candidates," Rio 2016 president Carlos Arthur Nuzman told Around the Rings, referring to the hour-long briefings held for the candidates at Rio 2016 headquarters last month.

"We feel very good about them. All of them have a strong commitment to the Olympics".

Outgoing president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is term-limited.

The three leading candidates are Dilma Rouseff of Lula’s Worker’s Party, Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party and Marina Silva of the Green Party.

Rouseff is the frontrunner according to opinion polls. She leads Serra by more than 20 points in all but one of the polls conducted since Aug. 24 and has pulled away from Serra almost continually. Silva has trailed in the distance, barely registering double digits in polls.

The election is scheduled for Oct. 3.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held Oct. 31 to determine a winner with the top two vote-getters contesting the runoff.

Rouseff, 62, is a protégé of Lula’s. She served most recently as his chief of staff, and before that was his minister of mines and energy.

The 68-year-old Serra is a former governor of the state of Sao Paulo.

Nuzman says Lula will be remembered as the president who has done the most for Braziliansport.

"President Lula is special. He is one incredible president. He has done more for sport than any other president in our history," Nuzman tells Around the Rings.

Lula, who led the Brazilian delegation to the IOC Session in Copenhagen last October, wept for joy as he answered questions about Rio de Janeiro’s victory during the press conference after the vote.

Nuzman says while he might miss the magic of Lula, he knows the law requires a term limit.

"It’s the system, it’s required by our constitution".

Written by Ed Hula.