Rio de Janeiro, August 16 (RHC) -- Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos, who died Wednesday in a plane crash, will likely be replaced by his running mate, former senator and Environment Minister Marina Silva, a leader of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) said Friday.

According to a Xinhua news agency report, PSB President Roberto Amaral said that Marina will be the most possible candidate, while a final decision will be announced after August 20th.

Silva appears to be the natural choice, given that she ran for president in the 2010 elections as the Green Party candidate and came in third, garnering more than 19 million votes.  However, the nomination could ruffle feathers within the PSB, as she's not strictly within the socialist party ranks.

After the 2010 race, Silva left the Greens to found her own political party, called the Sustainability Network, but the party was not constituted and registered in time for the 2014 race, leading her to form an alliance with Campos.

Her non-affiliation with the PSB casts doubts on whether the socialists will in fact nominate her to take Campos' place. The party is reportedly consulting militants to gauge her level of support.

The party only has 10 days as of August 13th to either declare a new candidate or align itself with another party and back its candidate.