Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pulled out of next month’s presidential election, allowing his running mate to stand in his place.
Workers’ Party leader, Gleisi Hoffman, announced the decision outside the police headquarters where the 72-year-old is serving a 12-year sentence.
Brazil’s top electoral court barred Lula’s candidacy less than two weeks ago due to his corruption conviction.
The move comes days after a far-right candidate was stabbed at a rally.
The 63-year old Jair Bolsonaro must now undergo major surgery after being attacked by a lone assailant, doctors said.
A letter written by Lula in his prison cell was read out to his supporters who have been camping outside the jail for five months demanding he be freed.
In it, the former president, who governed from January 2003 until December 2010, said he would not run in the election scheduled for October 7.
He also named Fernando Haddad as the man to step into the breach.
The decision comes after a lengthy legal battle which culminated on August 31 when the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ruled that he was “ineligible” to run for the presidency.
Lula’s legal team and the Workers’ Party have appealed against the decision and the Supreme Court is still due to rule on it.
Up until Monday night, the Workers’ Party strategy had been to keep Lula’s name on the ticket for as long as possible.
Lula left office with record approval ratings and despite his imprisonment, almost 40% of people asked by polling firm Datafolha said they would vote for him.
Mr. Haddad, on the other hand, is a former education minister who has little name recognition outside of São Paulo, where he served as mayor.
He was the minister of education during Lula’s presidency and is thought to enjoy his trust.
He was Lula’s vice-presidential running mate until now.
From 2013 to 2017, the 55-year-old also served as mayor of São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city and faced mass demonstrations against bus fare rises.
The Workers’ Party hopes that Mr. Haddad will get through to the run-off scheduled for October 28.
But Mr. Haddad is facing legal problems of his own.
Prosecutors allege that during his campaign for mayor his team received a loan from a construction firm which stood to benefit from contracts once he was elected.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
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Libya’s Tripoli airport diverts flights after rocket attack
The only working airport in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, has diverted flights after it came under rocket fire.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties at Mitiga International Airport after the attack on Tuesday night.
The airport had only reopened on Friday following clashes between rival militias.
A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli but militias occupy much of the rest of the country.
The rocket attack forced a Libyan Airlines flight from Alexandria in Egypt to divert to Misrata, some 200km (120 miles) east of the capital.
Other flights would also be diverted and a source told Agence France-Presse that plans were under way to move other planes at Tripoli to Misrata.
Libyan Airlines is the only operator, running internal flights and international ones to a limited number of countries.
It is barred from EU airports on security grounds.
