09-10-2014: Latin American Weekly Report

No Brazilian presidential candidate who came second after the first round of voting has ever won the presidency. For Aécio Neves, the candidate for the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), to triumph on 26 October, he needs to win over around 70% of the voters of Marina Silva, from the Partido Socialista Brasileiro (PSB), whereas President Dilma Rousseff, of the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), needs less than half. While Neves’s challenge is not impossible, given the depth of anti-PT feeling in parts of the country, it is a tall order.