Brazil Chooses Civilian Leader--1st in 21 Years

Opposition leader Tancredo Neves, a 74-year-old centrist politician who has pledged to “change Brazil,” today was elected the nation’s first civilian president in 21 years.

The Electoral College gave Neves 480 votes to 180 for the only other candidate, Congressman Paulo Maluf, 53, of the military-backed party. Twenty electors in the 686-seat body were absent, and six voided their votes.

Celebrations began immediately in South America’s most populous country. Outside the twin-domed Congress building where the election took place, thousands of Neves backers cheered, ignited firecrackers and honked car horns. They waved green-and-yellow Brazilian flags and chanted “Tancredo, Tancredo, Tancredo!”

Even before the voting started, Maluf made a conciliatory statement. He said he felt victorious because “my candidacy helped redemocratize Brazil.”

Outgoing President Gen. Joao Figueiredo, 67, author of a plan to gradually phase out military rule in Brazil, followed the voting from a hospital bed in Rio de Janeiro, where he was recovering from a back operation.

Neves will take office March 15 for a six-year term, ending control by a string of generals who have ruled Brazil since a right-wing military coup in 1964. The president-elect has promised to promote direct elections for his successor.

Both candidates promised to restore presidential elections by popular vote of the nation’s 134 million people. Among the staggering problems facing the winner are a foreign debt of more than $100 billion, inflation running at about 220% a year and high unemployment.