This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SAO PAULO 001110 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR PGOV ELAB BR
SUBJECT: WORKERS PARTY ELECTIONS FIRST ROUND RESULTS 
RELEASED; DEFECTIONS BEGIN 
 
REF: (A) SAO PAULO 1076; (B) SAO PAULO 1071; (C) BRASILIA 
 
2539 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1.   (U) Summary: On September 27, the Workers Party 
(Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) released the final results 
of its September 18 internal election.  In the race for 
national party president, Ricardo Berzoini, candidate of 
President Lula's moderate majority faction (Campo 
Majoritario - CM) garnered 42 percent of votes cast for 
national president, requiring a second round to be held 
October 9.  Two leftists, Valter Pomar and Raul Pont, 
battled for a place on the second-round ballot, with Pont 
edging out Pomar by a mere 279 votes.  In the balloting for 
"chapas" or leadership slates, which will determine the 
composition of the National Directorate and other party 
committees, the CM slate received 41.9 percent.  Though it 
will no longer control a majority of the 81-member 
Directorate, the CM is expected to ally with a smaller 
moderate faction and thus continue to control most party 
decision-making.  A number of leftists, including five 
federal deputies, have concluded that their bid to expand 
their influence within the party has failed and have 
announced their intention to leave the PT.  Most intend to 
join the leftist Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), a 
new party founded by earlier PT defectors.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.   (U) According to the official results published by the 
PT, 314,926 PT members went to the polls to elect national, 
state, and local presidents and leadership slates.  A fierce 
race for second place, and a place on the second-round 
ballot, was fought between two leftists, Valter Pomar of the 
Axis of the Left faction and former Porto Alegre Mayor Raul 
Pont of the Social Democracy current.  Pont squeaked in by a 
margin of 279 votes over Pomar, finishing with 14.7 percent 
of the total vote to Pomar's 14.6.  Ultra-radical Plinio de 
Arruda Sampaio finished fourth with 13.4 percent, and 
moderate Maria do Rosario was fifth with 13.3 percent.  Both 
Pomar and Rosario have announced their support for Pont in 
the second round, leading to the possibility that that he 
may defeat Berzoini.  Pont has called for the PT to force a 
change in the Lula government's policy, especially in the 
economic sphere. 
 
¶3.   (U) Even before the results were announced, leftists 
and radicals had begun to express displeasure with the 
outcome.  On September 25, some 400 dissidents affiliated 
with labor unions and leftist factions held a meeting in Sao 
Paulo to announce their defection from the party.  On 
Monday, fourth-place finisher Plinio de Arruda Sampaio held 
a press conference to announce his own defection.  Sampaio, 
a 75-year-old former federal deputy who helped found the PT 
in 1980 and was later Lula's running mate in two 
unsuccessful presidential bids, claimed that the PT's 
governing centrist majority had abdicated the party's role 
as an instrument of social change.  Since the election had 
left this faction in control of the National Directorate, he 
chose to continue his own social struggle under the banner 
of the PSOL.  In a press release, he said that, had he 
chosen to stay in the PT, he would have supported Raul Pont, 
and that several leftist groups remaining in the party would 
vote for Pont in the second round. 
¶4.   (U) Sampaio was joined in his defection by Federal 
Deputy Ivan Valente of Sao Paulo.  Four other federal 
deputies -- Joao Alfredo (Ceara), Orlando Fantazzini (Sao 
Paulo), Chico Alencar (Rio de Janeiro) and Maria Jose 
Maninha (Federal District) - have announced in recent days 
their intention to depart the PT and join the PSOL.  The 
defections reduce the PT's strength in the lower chamber to 
84 members and deprive them of their plurality.  The 
centrist (and highly fragmented) PMDB now has 87 seats.  It 
may gain several more before September 30, the deadline to 
change party affiliation for anyone who wants to run for 
office in next year's national and state elections.  The 
PSOL, founded in 2004 by deputies and senators who were 
expelled from the PT for their refusal to vote the party 
line, now has two senators and seven federal deputies. 
 
¶5.  (U) Another highly publicized defection was that of 83- 
year-old Helio Bicudo, a renowned human rights activist who 
served most recently as Deputy Mayor of Sao Paulo under 
Marta Suplicy (2001-04).  Bicudo claimed that the party had 
strayed down a wrong path beyond the possibility of 
correction.  The criticism of Bicudo and other defectors 
revolves around the CM's continued support for Lula's neo- 
liberal macroeconomic policies, and what they describe as a 
loss of ideals and ethics that led the party into the 
current political scandal (ref C). 
 
¶6.  (U) One major source of frustration of leftists and 
independent moderates was the presence on the CM's "chapa" 
or leadership slate of Lula's former Chief of Staff, Jose 
Dirceu, and other party members and government figures 
implicated in the scandal.  The CM's slate received 41.9 
percent of the vote and will thus control 34 of the 81 seats 
on the party's National Directorate.  Slates supported by 
Pont and Pomar each had about 12 percent of the vote and 
will each control 10 seats.  By reaching out to Maria do 
Rosario's independent moderate faction (nine seats) and 
other small centrist groups, the CM should be able to pull 
together a majority for important party policy decisions. 
In addition, CM candidates won 15 state presidencies 
outright, with independents and leftists winning in four 
states and eight other races going to a second round. 
 
¶7.  (U) Comment: A great deal of politicking and horse- 
trading will take place between now and October 9, and 
Berzoini may be able to fend off the challenge from the left 
and win the election.  The CM's continuing dominant position 
on the National Directorate leaves the party mechanism in 
the moderates' hands.  However, the defections offer a clear 
sign of the degree of disaffection within the party.  The PT 
enters into the 2006 campaign both divided against itself 
and badly damaged in the eyes of the electorate.  End 
Comment. 
 
¶8.  (U) This message was cleared/coordinated with Embassy 
Brasilia. 
 
McMullen