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Brazil's president Lula
re-elected
Brazil's Presiednt Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva, candidate of the
Workers' Party, won a second
term in the presidential runoff
with Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil's
electoral court announced on
Sunday.
Lula net 61 percent of the vote,
mostly from poor voters, easily
defeating his rival Alckmin of
the centrist Brazilian Social
Democracy Party.
Lula is highly popular among
lower-class voters for his
large-scale welfare program to
cover the poor, while Alckmin, a
former governor of the Sao Paulo
state, is more favored among
businessmen for his willingness
to encourage business.
On Sunday, about 125 million
Brazilians, or two-thirds of the
country's population, cast their
ballots in the presidential
runoff.
Lula, 61, failed to clinch an
outright victory over Alckmin in
the Oct. 1 presidential
election, during which the
incumbent president got 48.6
percent of the votes against
Alckmin's 41.6 percent.
The next government will face a
fractured parliament, with the
Lula's party holding 83 of the
513 seats in the lower house and
11 in the 81-seat Senate,
Alckmin's PSDB having 66 and 14
respectively, and the remaining
seats going to other parties.
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