Contrary to the hurried predictions that the country would have been divided in two between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin in the first round the presidential elections clearly showed a unified country in favour of Lula.

The re-elected president got 58 million votes (60,83% of valid votes) and won in 20 states, whereas Alckmin stayed ahead in only seven. In the runoff, the PSDB candidate got a little over 37 million votes, about 2,5 million less than the on the first round.

Lula’s growing support reversed the results in the states of Acre, Rondônia, Goiás and the Federal District, where he had lost in the first round. The PT candidate also gained support in states like Amazonas, Maranhão, Minas, Bahia, Rio and Pará, where support was already impressive.

Gaining the Difference

In Goiás, the state that inhabits the largest electorate in the Central West, Lula reversed the directions. In the first round he got 40,17% of the votes against the 51,5% of Alckmin. Now he managed 54,78% and the PSDB candidate 45,22%. In the Federal District, Lula got 37,05% on the first round and Alckmin 44,11%. In the second round Lula got 56,96% in the capital against the 43,04% of Alckmin.

Of the states that most voted for Alckmin, Lula almost reached a draw in Paraná, where Alckmin got 50,75% against 49,25% for Lula. The PT candidate also reduced significantly Alckmin’s support in the state the PSDB candidate governs. The difference in curbed from 3,835,935 votes to a little over one million.

Unanimity

In Amazonas where Lula won the most in the first round (78,06% to 12,45%), the PT candidate manage to gain support up to 86,80% against the 13,20% of the PSDB candidate. In Maranhão, where Lula had 75,50% of the votes, his support rose to 84,63%.

In Minas Gerais, the second largest electorate of Brazil, Lula defeated Alckmin with a larger difference. In the first round Lula got 50,8%; in the second he jumped to 65,19%. Minas Gerais was the state Alckmin most campaigned in on the second round.

In Bahia, where the biggest surprise of the first round, the victory of PT’s Jaques Wagner for state governor, happened, Lula had 66,65% of the votes. On the second term he climbed 78,12% and Alckmin got 21,88%. In Rio de Janeiro, Lula had 49,18% of the votes in the first round; in the second he jumped by 20 percentage points to 69,69%.

In Pará, where PT’s candate for governor, Ana Julía, was elected the fifth governor of the party, Lula had 51,78% on the first round, against 41,59% of Alckmin’s. In the second round Lula got 60,18% of the votes and Alckmin 39,82%.