Trouble for Rousseff
Via the BBC: Brazil election: Silva backs Neves in blow for Dilma
The Brazilian environmentalist Marina Silva, who came third in Sunday’s presidential election, has backed opposition centrist candidate Aecio Neves in the second round.
Mr Neves won 33.5% of the votes in the first round to 41.5% for President Dilma Rousseff, who is running for a second four-year term.
Ms Silva failed to qualify for the 26 October run-off, with 21%.
This is a timely example (at least in terms of recent discussion in my Latin American Politics course) of the political dynamics of two-round presidential systems. Here we see the third place finisher using her status to influence the policy positions of the second place candidate for the purpose of building a potentially successful electoral coalition going into the second round:
On Saturday, [Neves] announced in an open letter to the nation that he would incorporate into his manifesto issues such as land reform, the demarcation of indigenous lands and environmental concerns.
Those are issues Ms Silva has campaigned for during all her political life.
Polls in Brazil are very unreliable, so, it´s very difficult to see anything here.