Intense last day of campaigning in Brazil, where Rousseff emerges victorious

Candidates for the Presidency of Brazil fight every vote Thursday in the main cities and in a televised debate, the last day of campaigning for Sunday's elections, which the ruling Dilma Rousseff comes as a clear favorite.

The former chief of staff Rousseff, the Social Democratic former governor of Sao Paulo José Serra and former Environment Minister Marina Silva, the Green Party, multiplied public appearances while waiting to see their faces on a debate planned for local 22H00 (01H00 GMT .)

On Thursday the three candidates will meet in Rio de Janeiro, where they will debate hosted by TV Globo, which will be issued after the soap star of the chain, while preparing for the two-day campaign ban, Friday and Saturday.

Campaign committees and Serra Rousseff told AFP that both have small appearances on Thursday, although they will have public events in Rio, to be defined.

Marina Silva, meanwhile, has scheduled a news conference Thursday, after a successful and bustling appearance at Central Station downtown Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night in which he called his followers to fight vote by vote to force a ballot.

Silva, 52, told his supporters "to society and move coherently discuss what is best for health, public safety."

"I keep growing (in polls) and I will stay in state campaign until the final moment," he said.

In both surveys Rousseff stagnant, with a 47-50% gain in first round, to Serra, who with a 26-28% would be in a modest second place with no chance of fighting the presidency, only Silva has managed to capitalize on recent days of the campaign to grow to 13-14% of voting intentions.

Serra, 68, who has been losing sympathy among Brazilian voters since he launched his campaign with a comfortable lead of 30 to 17 on the official candidate, called Silva similar to his supporters in the closing ceremony of campaign on Wednesday night.

"On Monday (the day after the election), nobody is going to rest. Rest of the campaign until November because we still have to work hard," he said to his followers, invoking them to continue seeking votes for there second round on 30 October.

The latest poll released Thursday, the DataFolha polling for the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Rousseff gave 47% of voting intentions for Sunday.

That 47% of the voting intentions guarantees the dauphine of President Lula for 52% of the votes cast (minus blank and null), enough for victory in first round, for which it is necessary 50% plus one of votes considered valid or likely to be counted.

"To reach a second round, Rousseff would have to lose 6.3 million voters through Sunday, which is very unlikely," he said Wednesday Ricardo Guedes, director of the Sensus polling after the previous study gave Datafolha Rousseff drop some points in voting intentions.

The powerful former chief of staff of Lula, 62, is expected to vote in Porto Alegre (south) on Sunday, then fly to Brasilia where they will await the results with the president, his campaign confirmed to AFP.

Sources close to the Brazilian Presidency also indicated that both expect the result to the Alvorada Palace, the official residence of Brazilian leaders.

Serra meanwhile, voted at a school in Sao Paulo and wait for the results at his home in São Paulo, campaign sources said.

Marina Silva voted in the northeastern state of Acre, which is native.

Some 135 million voters are called to vote on Sunday in Brazil, for president, governors, and renew the Congress.