巴西總統候選人遇空難身亡

The Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos has been killed in an air crash, robbing the country of one of its rising political stars and changing the outlook for the most hotly contested national elections for more than a decade.

巴西總統候選人、巴西社會黨(PSB)人愛德華多•坎波斯(Eduardo Campos)因遭遇空難而喪生，令巴西失去了一位冉冉升起的政壇明星，也改變了大選的格局。將於今年10月舉行的巴西大選是十多年來競爭最白熱化的一次。

A private jet carrying Campos, of the centre-left PSB party, crashed in bad weather in the coastal city of Santos on Wednesday, killing all seven people on board, according to São Paulo’s fire department.

根據聖保羅消防部門的說法，一架載有坎波斯的私人飛機週三在海濱城市聖多斯的惡劣天氣中墜毀，機上7人全部遇難。

While opinion polls had shown that Campos was the third-strongest presidential candidate be­fore October’s vote, analysts had expected the business-friendly leftist to gain more votes as his official television campaign got under way.

儘管民意測驗顯示坎波斯在總統候選人裏只排第三，但分析人士原本預計這位對商界十分友好的左翼人士在電視選戰正式開始後能贏得更多選票。

Some had also forecast a possible alliance with Aécio Neves of the PSDB party in an expected second round in an attempt to unseat Dilma Rousseff, the incumbent president.

事發時，坎波斯的競選夥伴瑪瑞娜•席爾瓦(Marina Silva)不在飛機上。

Campos’s running mate, Marina Silva, was not on board the aircraft that crashed.

聖多斯是一個工業化的海濱城市，是拉美最大港口所在地。目前，調查人員正在事故現場搜尋相關線索。現場所在的居民區冒出濃煙。

Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at Tendências, a São Paulo-based consultancy, called the politician’s death a tragedy and said: “The repercussions are wide open and there is a potential for big change . . .“It will depend on who Campos’s replacement will be and whether Marina [Silva] would accept that position.”

飛機在上午10點左右撞上了一個健身房。根據現場附近的Irmandade da Santa Casa da Misericórdia醫院的說法，除機上人員外，至少還有6人因此受傷——其中包括一名18個月大的嬰兒。巴西許多政界人物爲坎波斯表示了哀悼，不過分析人士預計部分涉事者會用空難做文章，挑起論戰。

Brazilian stocks swung wildly after the news as investors struggled to assess whether Campos’s death would make an opposition victory more or less likely.

坎波斯曾任巴西東北部伯南布哥州州長，最新民調顯示他的支持率只有10%。

Brazil’s benchmark Bov­espa index lost early gains on Wednesday and dropped as much as 2.1 per cent before recovering slightly to 1.5 per cent down by the close.

不過，分析人士將此部分歸結於巴西的國土面積太大，政治人物需要一段時間才能得到全國的認可。

While Ms Rousseff is still the favourite to win, her waning popularity since mass protests last year has been welcomed by investors who dislike her party’s interventionist economic policies.

他的正式電視選戰原定於下週纔開始。在文盲率很高的巴西，電視是極有影響力的選舉工具。

“It is now likely that [Campos’s] place will be taken by Marina Silva, his running mate, after an extraordinary party convention,” said Tony Volpon, an economist at Nomura.

坎波斯是巴西最年輕的總統候選人之一，三天前剛剛慶祝了他的49歲生日。他身後留下妻子和五個孩子，其中年齡最小的孩子今年剛一出生就罹患唐氏綜合症。