An election upset in Brazil

CSMS Magazine Staff writersBrazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva emerged from this Sunday’s elections in the lead, but fell to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off. A series of corruption scandals in the wee hours preceding the election may have contributed to the president’s unexpected poor showing.Lula will have to face Social-Democrat Geraldo Alckmin, his closest rival, in a second round on October 29. With 98.06% of votes counted, Lula had 48.79% and Alckmin 41.43%. Still to be counted is the 1.94% of the vote, or a total of 2.7 million ballot slips. According to Brazilian electoral law, to win the presidency a candidate needs 50% plus one votes, thus beating all his or her opponents.Going in to the second round, Lula may face several hurdles. According to several observers, he could find it even more difficult to overcome his opponent, a staunch conservative and former mayor of South America’s largest city, Sao Paulo. The problem Lula faces is no different than the one facing petit bourgeois, social democrats, coming to power in developing countries like Brazil.Brazil is South America’s most violent societies, where juvenile delinquency is one of the highest in the world, where prostitution is a way of life for most women in power neighborhoods and where the disparity between rich and poor has reached unimaginable proportion.       Send this article to friend.See also: https://csmsmagazine.org/news.php?pg=20061001I285