A split in the PT could be another obstacle for Dilma.

By Jeferson Ribeiro

BRASILIA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Internal disagreements within the PT, amplified by the process of electing the party's new leadership, could become an additional obstacle for President Dilma Rousseff to regain unity within her fragmented allied base in Congress.

The president's party is going through a turbulent time. There are strong divisions within its caucus in the Chamber of Deputies regarding how the political reform should be handled, the 2014 presidential election is not a consensus, some factions want former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to enter the race, and the party is also seeing internal factions intensifying their positions due to the process of choosing the new leadership, scheduled for November.

These internal divisions within the Workers' Party make the task of rebuilding the allied base, one of Dilma's priorities upon returning from the parliamentary recess, even more difficult.

The failures in the government's political coordination, evident in important votes in Congress, were exacerbated by the sharp drop in the president's popularity after the popular demonstrations in June and by an increasingly complicated economic scenario.

Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) warns that disunity does not help the government. "A divided PT contributes to isolation from its allied base and does not help (the government)," he said.

The internal electoral dispute is considered the main fuel for the current disagreements, according to another member of the Workers' Party (PT), who asked not to be named. "There's a group with a Stalinist mentality that's trying to pull the party towards condemning alliances, which could isolate the PT in Congress," said the parliamentarian.

This member of the Workers' Party, however, believes that the effects of this internal division will not harm the government or the president individually, because former president Lula is able to control the party and prevent the worst.

Lula, in fact, has been meeting with members of the Workers' Party from various factions in recent weeks and is trying to quell complaints against Dilma within the party and speculation that he could replace her in the 2014 presidential race.

Adding to the internal discord is Dilma's distant stance towards the PT, which some point to as an additional factor contributing to the divisions. PT members always remind everyone that their political activism is within the PDT. The president only joined the PT in 2000.

There are those, for example, who criticized her absence from the National Directorate meeting about two weeks ago in Brasília. In the opinion of these members of the Workers' Party, Dilma should have participated in the meeting that discussed solutions to the government's political and economic difficulties.

The political resolution approved by the National Directorate, more than a week after the meeting in which it was presented, shows how exacerbated the party's internal disagreements have become.

Congressman Paulo Teixeira (PT-SP), a candidate for the party's presidency, says that until June, before the popular demonstrations, the majority faction of the PT believed that the elections were decided and that it would not be necessary to face internal debates.

"The demonstrations highlighted the problems within the PT," said Teixeira, who is in a better position to take the election to a second round against the current president, Rui Falcão.

"This crisis has shown that it's not enough to celebrate the past; we have to look at the present, and the PT (Workers' Party) has to be an actor, not a spectator," he argued.

Teixeira doesn't believe the internal dispute will bring additional difficulties to Dilma. "The PT is like that, it's loud. But we're with her," he assured.

"If there were a higher level of unity, it could help the government more (in this difficult time)," said Congressman André Vargas (PT-PR).

According to him, internal disagreements are normal within the PT and should not be suppressed. "A fictitious unity is not good either."