Rousseff, Neves head to runoff for Brazil presidency

President Dilma Rousseff from the Workers Party (PT) and challenger Aecio Neves from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PMDB) will face off on October 26 in order to decide who will govern Brazil during the 2015 – 2019 term.

Electoral law in Brazil indicates that in order to win in the first round a candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the votes of the population or defeat their closest rival by more than 20 points, neither condition was met this Sunday.

With 84.36 percent of the vote counted, Rouseff won the first round of voting with 40.5 of the vote. Neves came in second with 34.87 percent of the vote. Silvia Marina has 21.00 percent.

The second round will be held on October 26.

In addition to the Presidential elections, Brazilians also went to the polls to decide 27 governors, 513 national deputies and 27 senators.

The current results in the races for governor are as follows. Geraldo Alckmin of the PSDB was re-elected as governor of Sao Paulo. In Paraná, Beto Richa, also of the PSDB, was re-elected as governor. In Espirito Santo Paulo Hartung of the PMDB was elected as governor. Finally in Minas Gerais, Fernando Pimentel of the PT appears to have won in the first round in the race for governor. In the Federal District Rollemberg of the Brazilian Socialist Party and Johan Frejat of the Party of the Republic will face each other in a run off election.

This past Sunday the electoral process was held without major incident, though there were some small irregularities.

A massive electoral effort was realized in the 26 states and the Federal District, utilizing an electronic system that helps eliminate the potential for human error and delivers results quickly.

These elections were witness to a fairly hectic campaign, that included surprises, tragedies, and major confrontations.

teleSUR invites you to view our Live Update of the elections in Brazil.

Please also visit our election site Brazil Decides 2014.

(From telesur)