Now, That's Just Embarassing

Basking in the glory of a victory for Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva last night, the full and absolute defeat of Geraldo Alckmin hadn't fully sunk in. I was just pleased that Lula took 61% of the vote, and Alckmin, 39% (the numbers I originally posted were with 87% of the votes - it ended up a little higher than I originally posted).

But in Brazil, voting is mandatory - virtually the exact same number of people vote in elections in which there are first and second rounds (to not vote in Brazil without a government-approved excuse is to make yourself eligible for the forfeiting of social security and numerous other government programs). So, basically, the same number of people (about 95 million) voted in both rounds.

As I wrote after the first round, Alckmin finished with 41%. Yet this time, he finished with 39%.

With the same number of votes.

Which means he actually LOST support from the first round to the second round. The proof is in the numbers, as he fell from nearly 40 million votes on October 2nd, to just over 37 million yesterday. Over two million of his OWN supporters had second thoughts after the first round...

...Now that's just embarassing.