巴西环保人士角逐2018年度总统

Brazil Environmentalist to Compete for Presidency¹ in 2018

Former Brazilian senator Marina Silva plans to seek her party’s nomination² for the presidency next year.

Silva announced her plans at a meeting of her Sustainability Network Party last weekend. The Reuters news agency says the party would officially nominate her as its presidential candidate when at its national convention in April.

The 59-year-old Silva was born in a rubber-producing community in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. She served as the environmental minister under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. She was a candidate in the past two presidential elections, but never received enough support to compete for a second round vote.

Silva said she would seek her party’s nomination because “Brazilians want a country free of corruption³” and that she had the moral values to provide that.

Her supporters have called the environmentalist Brazil’s most principled politician.

Since early 2014, Brazilian police and government lawyers have carried out a major anti-corruption campaign. Their efforts have led to discovery of political wrongdoing in every major party, except Silva’s.

She has expressed support for financial responsibility, setting targets for inflation and a floating exchange rate.

In a recent survey, Brazilians said Silva was the third most popular candidate, with 10 percent of those questioned saying they would vote for her. The finding was published on the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper’s website last Saturday.

But that survey included Lula as a possible candidate. He was found guilty in a corruption trial in July. If a higher court supports the guilty ruling before the October election, he could not run.

In the 2010 election, Marina Silva, then with the Green Party, won a surprising 20 percent in the first round of presidential voting. But that was not enough to push her into a runoff vote with eventual⁴ winner Dilma Rousseff.

In 2014, Silva was the Brazilian Socialist⁵ Party’s candidate for vice⁶ president. The party nominated Eduardo Campos as its presidential candidate. However, he died when his airplane crashed two months before the election. Silva took his place and won 21 percent in the first round. But she again failed to win enough votes for a runoff.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in this Story

convention – n. a large meeting of people who come to a place for usually several days to talk about their shared work or other interests or to make decisions as a group

principled – adj. having, based on, or relating to strong beliefs about what is right and wrong

runoff - n. an additional race, contest, or election that is held because an earlier one has not resulted in a winner

survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

1 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

4 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

5 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。