These articles were written five months before the first round
of presidential elections in Brazil, on October 1, 2006. The
second round, on October 29, saw Lula reelected with 58.3
million votes (60.78 percent of all valid votes), beating
Geraldo Alckmin, the candidate for the Partido Social Democrata
Brasileiro (PSDB), the party of Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Lula’s predecessor in office. Lula won this second four-year
mandate after a campaign revolving around ethical issues and
allegations of corruption against government officials and high-
ranking members of his Partido dos Trabalhadores
(PT)—allegations from opposition parties, right and left. The
campaign included the pathetic episode of PT officials trying to
buy information on candidates from the PSDB in the State of São
Paulo (economically and politically speaking, one of the most
important states in the union, with a strong oppositional
streak), and a concerted nationwide media campaign for Alckmin
on a scale never before seen in Brazil. In percentag