The people of Brazil are voting today to elect a successor to the popular incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is stepping down after serving two terms in office. His Workers Party colleague Dilma Rousseff has a big lead in the opinion polls that leads fifty per cent of the vote to win outright in this first round. She is promising to continue the successful economic policies pursuit by Mr. Lula. Opposition candidate Jose Serra has urged Brazilian voters to back him on today's vote and take the presidential election into a second round.