Maluf was then chosen by the PDS to be their candidate for President against Neves, in the Electoral college on January 15, 1985. Neves secretly wanted businessman Antônio Ermírio de Moraes to be vice-president. Ermírio de Moraes, born in a traditional family from Pernambuco, was business leader in São Paulo. His father, José Ermírio de Moraes had been senator through the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) in Pernambuco and was a friend of Getúlio Vargas. His secret was revealed and the possibility of Antônio becoming vice-president was discarded in São Paulo. The PMDB had minority seats in the Electoral college, and for that reason, it needed to gain votes from the PDS to be able to elect a president. At that time, the candidates for president and vice-president had to be from the same party, and party coalitions where not allowed. Sarney was able to affiliate himself to the PMDB because he had been senator through the National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) in 1978, party which had been extinct since then. Therefore, his change in parties was not considered by the existing electoral rules, as an infidelity worthy of losing a mandate, since Sarney was not leaving a party by which he had been elected. This was not the case with Marco Maciel, who could not change parties since he had been elected senator in Pernambuco through the PDS in 1982. Aureliano Chaves could not be a candidate for president through the PMDB, even though he had been elected vice-president through the ARENA in 1978, since he had been the President as a substitute for João Figueiredo, becoming therefore, ineligible for president. Aureliano was also ineligible for vice-president because at the time, re-election was not allowed. Neves was cast as candidate for having approval by the military and for being considered a moderate. In the military arena, the support that former President Ernesto Geisel offered was very decisive. But Neves's moderation was a target of criticism by the Workers' Party (PT), which did not accept the electoral college. Neves also gained influence inside the Democratic Social Party PDS when meeting with governors of the Northeast (all nine of them were elected by the PDS and were, in majority, politicians from a new generation that admired Neves) during the meetings with the Superintendency for the Development of the Northeast.