Brazil's Lula Should Win Today's Elections with About 60% of Votes
Written by Newsroom
Sunday, 29 October 2006
More than 125 million Brazilians are going to the polls this Sunday, October 29, to cast ballots in a runoff presidential election with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expected to win another term in office.
Polls released Saturday show Lula with 22% percent more votes than his opponent, former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin. DataFolha and Ibope give Lula 61% of the valid votes against 39% for Alckmin.
It these numbers are confirmed Lula would have won by a similar margin of his first election four years ago. The polls will be open from 8 am to 5 pm. Final results are expected to be released today before midnight.
In a Saturday campaign rally Lula promised that he would make peace with the opposition after the election. He also said that his party, the PT, will go trough a radical reform.
The president voted in an elementary school in São Bernardo do Campo, in the ABCD region in the Greater São Paulo, the same city where he started his political career as a union leader.
Alckmin predicted he would get an upset victory. He said Brazilians understood the need for change and know it is the vote that changes things.
He was applauded when he cast his vote in the morning in São Paulo. The former governor of São Paulo was accompanied by his wife Lu Alckmin and three children as well as former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and São Paulo's governor elect, José Serra.
That's The Man! written by Costinha,
October 29, 2006
I voted for Lula, the Brasilian people wins.
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Costinha.. Get a Life written by James,
October 29, 2006
Dude, What is your problem with America? Dont you folks have enough of your own problems to worry about? We are trying to combate terrorism and make the world a safer place.
God Bless America
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Brazil falling behind.... written by Miguel,
October 29, 2006
Well, as I predicted. The Brazilian people are really STUPID, and that is why Brazil is falling behind other developed countries and will continue to do so. As a Brazilian living overseas, we see things that ordinary Brazilians don't. We see how the country is infested by liars, corrupt politicians and ignorant "Cuba-lovers" that have never set foot in a communist nation to justify their ideas. We see how the country is truly a Third-world nation with basically no hope of being a strong, developed and leading country. God gave beautiful land to a mindless, weak and ignorant people....The result? A semi-illiterate President that does not know even how to speak correctly, who knows nothing of what goes on in his own government and who lies to the people saying that Brazil is better than ever. Things are so good there that what I see are waves of Brazilians moving north of the Equator. Brazilians deserve to suffer and to live in misery, simply because they do not know how to inflict meaningful change. Maybe because the govenment likes it that way. Just don't blame the USA for your problems. Lula should be able to solve them all. Good luck to all the smart and sensible people down south.
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America and Brazil written by Sergio,
October 30, 2006
I´ve been to the USA twice. Last time was last month. You know what? It´s probably the best country in the world. Far better than Brazil on each and every aspect (except the food, I think ours is a lot better and cheaper).
The american people have one distinguish caracteristic which we (brazillians) will never have. They are SERIOUS people and they truly love their homeland and their way of life.
Voting for a mentally retarded, corrupt, thief, politician like Lula is the perfect demonstration that our people has no clue about what´s going on here. People only care about wether or not they´ll have something to eat TODAY, and the hell with tomorrow.
Down here, we have our own way to se things. We grow up seeing our parents bribing highway cops to avoid speeding tickets; we se everybody trying to find ways to run away from taxes; we don´t even care when we see the crime waves on the streets.
We watch politicians steal our money everyday on the news, and we still vote for them!!! That´s outragious! Any serious country (like the US) would have burned their politicians alive on a situation like this. Any serious people would never put up with corrupcy like the one that´s been seen settled here. Nevertheless, here in brazil, most of the people is way to stupid to realize that, and they keep thinking that a presidend "like them" will be the answer to their problems (to bad they can´t wonder why they remain miserably poor, barely surviving, if Lula is the correct answer).
I´m very ashamed to be brazillian.
Sergio. 27y/o attourney at law.
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All is not lost written by HM,
October 30, 2006
Democracy in Brazil did not end with this election, it has just begun. In Brazil Lula do not have what Bush presently has in the US, a bully pulpit and a rubber stamp congress. (I wrote presently because in a few days that will change.) Without majority rule, the best chance for constructive progress to take place in Brazil is by collaboration. If you tell me that you do not have faith in your politicians to do the job that they were elected to accomplish then I do not think you can blame Lula alone. The president sets the agenda and congress debates and approve or disapprove of that agenda. The congress also have a right to set its own agenda. That is democracy at work. Without a majority there is no reason for capitulation. If your politicians in Brazil cannot put country first then I will have to agree with you but only if the brazilian citizens themselves capitulate by not holding their individual politicians feet to the fire. Remember, you are the government they are only the elected representative. Never give up hope because when you do nothing changes. Education is the key to change. Start there.
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention.
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area.
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy.
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil.
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms.
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis.
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking.
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse.
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
Down with US evil plan.!!!