The October elections have prompted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Siva to promote changes in his cabinet.

The October elections have prompted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Siva to promote changes in his cabinet. The list is composed of nine ministers who had to vacate their posts by March 31-the deadline for those willing to run in the October elections.

Among the nine substitutes, seven were executive secretaries of their ministries. One of them, minister Waldir Pires, changed the Federal Comptroller’s Office for the Defense. And the ninth, Tarso Genro, a former mayor of Porto Alegre, took up the Institutional Relations Ministry.

At the Finance Ministry, replacing Antonio Palocci, Lula appointed an economist, formed in the developmentist tradition, Guido Mantega. His nomination, if not signaling to immediate changes in the economic policy, indicates that a second presidential term will change its emphasis to development and income distribution.