With 97% of the votes counted, it appears that Cornellian Jose Serra (PhD ’77) will face off against Dilma Rousseff in a run-off election. After the first round of presidential elections, Rousseff, who is the chosen successor of the current Brazilian President, failed to secure a 50% plurality of the vote. Serra got 33% of the vote in the most recent round, so the election will basically be decided by how the Green Party’s votes are split between the two candidates. From The Economist:
The run-off will depend on how Ms Silva’s voters split between Ms Rousseff and Mr Serra. They might be influenced by Ms Silva’s endorsement, should she issue one—and since as a presidential candidate she has had to step down as a senator, she might well accept the offer of a job in a future cabinet in return. Although she does not like Ms Rousseff, whom she blames for the un-green policies that pushed her to leave Lula’s government and join the Green Party, I just can’t see her throwing her lot in with Mr Serra. Staying aloof from both would risk leaving her jobless, and at risk of losing the political momentum that is clearly building behind her.
The run-off election will be held on October 31st.
A very delicate post indeed. I believe that the Presidential election is still up for grabs. I’ll be cheering here from Ithaca to our very own Cornellian Serra. Go Big Red!
If other Cornellians knew who Jose Serra really is, they would strip him from the Cornellian title. He is an awful human being and a corrupt politician. He will be destroyed in this runoff, and forced to end his political career. In my opinion he would have done Brazil a great favor if he had quit after the 2002 election, where he lost to President Lula’s 61% of votes. He will soon be humiliated again on Oct 31st.