Brazil Presidential elections head for second round

[Mark]

Elections have been held in Brazil yesterday. With almost all the ballots counted it is now certain a second round is needed to know who will be Brazil's next president.

Ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff led Brazil's presidential election on Sunday, but she will almost certainly face a runoff after some voters were turned off at the last minute by a corruption scandal and her views on social issues.

Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla leader who vows to continue the pragmatic center-left policies that have made Brazil one of the world's fastest-growing emerging market economies, had 45.2 percent of valid votes with 83 percent of ballots counted.

She needed more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff on Oct. 31 and so will likely face her nearest rival, opposition candidate and former Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra, who garnered 33.4 percent of the votes.

A senior source inside Rousseff's ruling Workers' Party said there was now "no way" she could avoid a second round vote.

An unexpected late surge by a third candidate, the Green Party's Marina Silva, came largely at Rousseff's expense. Silva had 20.2 percent of valid votes.

Rousseff is favored to beat Serra in a runoff and become the first woman to lead Brazil, although a first-round victory would have given her a stronger mandate to push through reforms such as changes to Brazil's onerous tax laws.

Her campaign has been helped by red-hot economic growth and the support of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is wildly popular and handpicked Rousseff to succeed him.

Yet recent allegations of a kickback scheme involving Lula's chief of staff, plus questions among evangelical Christians about Rousseff's positions on abortion and other social issues, appear to have instilled just enough doubt in voters' minds to cost her a first-round victory.

Valdeci Baiao da Silva, a security officer in Brasilia, said the good economic times had made him a Lula supporter -- but he voted for Serra on Sunday because Rousseff seemed unprepared and unpredictable.

"I think she might even disappoint (Lula)," he said.

Source: Reuters