BRAZIL’S Supreme Court decision to send former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to jail is a nakedly political act.

The most popular president in Brazil’s history is also the front-runner in polls for elections due in October. His Workers’ Party government oversaw massive poverty reduction and redistribution of wealth that saw per capita household income rise 27 per cent in eight years.

When he stepped down after serving the maximum two consecutive terms, his successor Dilma Rousseff won election and re-election in the 2010 and 2014 votes on the same left-wing platform.