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Brazilian 3rd-party challenger forces Lula's protegee into runoff
A surprisingly strong finish by a Green Party candidate denied the handpicked candidate of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a first-round victory in Brazil's presidential election, according to late returns Sunday night.
Dilma Rousseff was first with 47 percent of the votes, ahead of opposition candidate Jose Serra, who had 33 percent. Rousseff needed at least 50 percent to win outright, so she and Serra face a runoff election Oct. 31.
Serra is the former governor of Sao Paulo state and a former minister in the administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula's predecessor.
Most analysts expect Rousseff to win the runoff. In the first round, however, the former chief of staff to the highly popular Lula, as the president is known to all, appeared to be hurt by what some evangelical voters considered an ambiguous position on abortion.
Brazilian political analyst Amaury De Souza said that evangelical voters were increasing in Brazil and appeared to have a strong influence in this year's elections.