Roussef would have been placed in the stand below that of interim president Temer, and not at his side, a spokesperson for Temer said.
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The suspended Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, says she will not attend the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics because she does not want to take a secondary position in the Maracana stadium.
Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, and Rousseff were the captains of Rio’s candidacy to win the Olympic Games in 2009.
“She will not go”, said a source from Rousseff’s office at the Alvorada Palace residency in the capital Brasilia.
Polls of senators show that Brazil’s first female president will be convicted of breaking budget laws and definitively removed from office at the end of August, confirming Temer as president for the remainder of her term through 2018.
Concerns had been expressed about the diplomatic risks of having both Temer and Rousseff present alongside so many other global dignitaries.
Another former President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has also said he will not attend the ceremony.
In a recent interview, Rousseff said she felt she had been “the mother of these Olympics” and Lula “the father”.
It has been reported that da Silva himself also refused to participate in the opening ceremony despite being invited by the International Olympic Committee.
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Brazil, which hosted the football World Cup in 2014, was until recently seen as one of the leaders of the BRICS group of fast growing economies, but has since experienced a severe depression and ongoing political crises.
