RIO DE JANEIRO - ()

(KRT) - Voters in Latin America's largest democracy moved Brazil sharply to the left Sunday by electing as their president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who won overwhelming support from the nation's legions of poor.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Brazil's Supreme Election Tribunal reported that da Silva had won 61.5 percent of the valid vote to 38.5 percent for Jose Serra, the governing party candidate. Serra conceded defeat Sunday night.

Da Silva's Workers' Party supporters poured gleefully into the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and across Brazil. In street parties rivaling Carnaval, they danced, set off fireworks and waved large red flags that are the leftist party's trademark.

The voting was billed by the Brazilian government as the largest-ever electronic election. Brazil uses new computerized voting machines that grew out of technology developed by Unisys.

Brazil, a nation of 170 million, has 115.3 million registered voters. Turnout for the mandatory vote was estimated at 80 percent.

While winning the presidency was most important for the Workers' Party, its gubernatorial candidate lost in the state of Sao Paulo, whose economy is bigger than any country's economy in South America.

The party's candidate in Rio Grande do Sul also lost - the first state government run by the Workers' Party. The state is considered the cradle of the leftist movement in Brazil.

Da Silva had failed in three prior presidential bids, but a slumping economy, soaring crime, high unemployment and a widespread desire for change helped him prevail on his 57th birthday.

"I think Brazil can play an extraordinary role in this American continent, so that we can build an effective world peace, where countries can grow economically and socially for the well-being of their people," da Silva said in his victory speech Sunday night, broadcast live across Brazil and on loudspeakers to the thousands celebrating in the streets.

Brazil had never elected a leftist president. Brazil's last leftist president was Joao Goulart, a vice president who assumed power in 1961 when the centrist president resigned. Goulart served 2-1/2 years and was deposed by a right-wing military coup.

SYMPATHIZERS

Da Silva was elected with the backing of Brazil's poor, who consider that he has struggled like them. Imprisoned for challenging military dictators, he was in jail when his mother died. Da Silva's first wife and son died during childbirth. He lost a pinkie finger in a factory accident.

"I think he has suffered much in his personal life, so I think he understands us," Edina Gunha, an unemployed housekeeper in Rio de Janeiro, said after voting for da Silva.

The election of a veteran leftist is likely to put Latin America's most populous and geographically largest nation on a collision course with the United States.

Throughout the campaign, da Silva criticized Brazilian leaders' submission to U.S. foreign and economic policy. He assailed ongoing hemisphere-wide, free-trade talks as "economic annexation" by the United States.

ECONOMIC CHANGE

That rhetoric caused financial investors to fret that da Silva, who moderated his views in his campaign, is really a radical who will turn away from free-market reforms in favor of a closed, protectionist economy.

In his campaign, da Silva supported most broad economic reforms and pledged to run a budget surplus, but he said job creation was his main priority and pledged to favor companies and sectors of the economy that generate employment.

Da Silva aides said Sunday that a transition team should be announced Tuesday, with an eye toward calming investors who have battered Brazil's stock and currency markets in recent months.

The team is expected to include bankers and business leaders in a nod to nervous foreign and domestic investors.

Aides said da Silva also wants to begin talking immediately with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to rework next year's federal budget and focus more on social spending.

Da Silva also wants legislation passed before he takes office Jan. 1 to grant autonomy to the central bank. Such a move, patterned after the British model, would boost Brazil's credibility with investors because it reduces political influence over monetary policy.

NO GROWTH

Da Silva feels he has a mandate for change.

Eight years of U.S.-backed economic policies tamed inflation in Brazil but failed to produce significant economic growth.

Instead, Brazil suffers a sinking currency, high unemployment, high crime and a growing informal economy in which workers are paid off the books and the government cannot collect enough taxes to pay for social programs.

"Even people who didn't vote for him before, like my father, are voting for him," said Ana Moreira, a voter from Rio de Janeiro, "because we need saving."

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