Brazil's intellectuals, artists and religious leaders on Wednesday published an open letter in support of the reelection of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of Sunday's elections.

In the letter, entitled "With Lula, is our social responsibility," 431 public figures called for a first round victory for the leader, to strengthen him politically so that he can be "free from powerful pressures against him, and will thus be able to carry out the social changes society needs."

Among the signatories are economist Maria da Concei Tavares, theologian Leonardo Boff, sociologist Emir Sader and Catholic archbishop Waldyr Riberos.

Lula, of the ruling Workers Party (PT), has a massive lead in opinion polls, and is very likely to be re-elected in a single round of voting, thanks to the support of low-income Brazilians.

"We are experiencing a new moment in politics, which began with the 2002 victory of Lula, a worker; and it will further strengthen Latin America with the victory of a candidate linked to working class people," the letter said, describing Lula as an international role model.

It mentioned recent scandals involving Lula's Workers Party, saying, "We vehemently condemn all kinds of corruption and political manipulation. The process goes back a long way, in many levels of society and of power, but now it has reached the government's support base."

The letter also acknowledged that Brazil's anti-corruption measures were completely free to carry out their work, and their discoveries were widely published.

The signatories said that while Lula's administration had fallen a long way short of the hopes generated, and while a lot remained to be done, his project had battled "real dominant powers, both national and international."

Some 126 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in Sunday's elections for governors, deputies and senators -- a total of 1,627 posts.

Source: Xinhua