Lula says he won’t try for a third term
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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would not seek a third consecutive term but would try to influence the choice of his successor, who might come from outside his ruling party.
“When a political leader begins to think he is indispensable, and cannot be substituted, a little dictatorship is born,” Lula said in an interview in O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.
The former factory worker’s term ends in December 2010.
Brazil’s constitution bars a president from a third consecutive term, but Lula could have tried to muster support to change the law if he wanted.
His predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, did so to get an amendment allowing a second term.
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