2010 Brazilian general election

2010 Brazilian general election

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Presidential election
3 October 2010 (first round) 31 October 2010 (second round)
Turnout	81.88% (first round) 78.50% (second round)
Nominee Dilma Rousseff José Serra Party PT PSDB Alliance For Brazil to Keep on Changing Brazil Can Do More Running mate Michel Temer Indio da Costa Popular vote 55,752,483 43,711,388 Percentage 56.05% 43.95%
Second round, shaded accounding to vote share First round, shaded accounding to vote share Presidential election results
President before election Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva PT Elected President Dilma Rousseff PT
Legislative election
3 October 2010
All 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 54 of the 81 seats in the Senate
Party Leader % Seats +/– Chamber of Deputies PT José Eduardo Dutra 16.87 88 +5 PMDB Iris de Araújo 12.98 78 −11 PSDB Sérgio Guerra 11.88 54 −11 PR Sérgio Tamer 7.57 42 +18 DEM Carlos Lupi 7.56 43 −22 PSB Eduardo Campos 7.09 34 +7 PP Francisco Dornelles 6.55 41 −1 PDT Vieira da Cunha 5.03 28 +4 PTB Cristiane Brasil 4.18 21 −1 PV José Luiz Penna 3.84 15 +2 PSC 3.18 17 +8 PCdoB Renato Rabelo 2.85 15 +2 PPS 2.63 12 −9 PRB 1.69 7 +6 PSOL Heloísa Helena 1.18 3 0 PMN 1.13 4 +1 PHS 0.79 2 0 PTdoB Luis Tibé 0.67 3 +2 PTC Daniel Tourinho 0.62 1 −3 PSL Luciano Bivar 0.52 1 +1 PRTB Levy Fidelix 0.32 2 +2 PRP 0.32 2 +2 Senate PT José Eduardo Dutra 23.12 15 +5 PSDB Sérgio Guerra 18.13 11 −3 PMDB Iris de Araújo 14.08 19 +3 PCdoB 7.37 2 0 DEM Carlos Lupi 6.00 6 −12 PP Francisco Dornelles 5.38 5 +4 PTB Roberto Jefferson 4.69 6 +2 PPS 4.97 1 0 PSB Eduardo Campos 3606 3 0 PR Luciano Bivar 2.73 4 +1 PRB 2.96 1 −1 PSOL Heloísa Helena 1.78 2 +1 PDT Vieira da Cunha 1.43 4 −1 PSC 0.73 1 +1 PMN 0.14 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

General elections were held in Brazil on 3 October 2010 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no presidential candidate received more than 50% in the first round of voting, a second round was held on 31 October to choose a successor to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT),^[1] who was constitutionally ineligible to run for a third term as he has already served two terms after winning the elections in 2002 and being re-elected in 2006.^[2]

With the support of Lula, the ruling PT nominated Dilma Rousseff, a former member and co-founder of the Democratic Labour Party,^[3] who joined Lula's administration as Ministry of Mines and Energy and later served as presidential Chief of Staff.^[4] For her vice presidential running mate, Dilma chose Michel Temer, a member of the centre-right Brazilian Democratic Movement, who served as President of the Chamber of Deputies^[5] and previously considered a presidential run in his own right.

The centre-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) nominated José Serra, who resigned as Governor of São Paulo to mount his presidential campaign. A former Mayor of São Paulo who had served as Minister of Health during the Cardoso Administration, Serra had previously been the presidential nominee of his party in 2002.^[6] For his vice presidential running mate, Serra chose Indio da Costa, a conservative Federal Deputy from Rio de Janeiro who was a member of the right-wing Democrats party. Da Costa, who became embroiled in controversy over his suggestion that the Workers' Party was linked to the international drug trade, received international comparisons to American politician Sarah Palin.^[7][8]

Marina Silva, a Senator from the northwestern state of Acre and former Minister of the Environment under Lula, left the PT to mount a candidacy as part of the Green Party. Silva criticized the environmental policies of the Lula Administration and ran a campaign in support of sustainable development, ending corruption, and decriminalizing marijuana.^[9] Silva, who would've been the first Black woman to serve as President,^[10] saw support from younger voters and managed to win almost 20% of the vote in the first round, well exceeding initial expectations.^[11]

In the first round, Dilma received 47% of the vote, Serra 33% and Silva 19%. Dilma went on to defeat Serra in the second round, becoming the first (and to date only) female President of Brazil. The elections were the first since 1989 (after the military dictatorship) that Lula did not run for the presidency.^[12]

In the parliamentary elections, a "red wave" saw the PT become the largest party in the Chamber for the first time ever with 88 deputies, and elected Marco Maia as President of the lower house.^[13][14] Collectively, its coalition, For Brazil to keep on changing, elected 311 deputies.^[15] Four parties in the coalition lost seats; the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), Democratic Labour Party (PDT), and the Christian Labour Party (PTC). However, only the PTC failed to gain seats in either house. The Republic Party (RP) had the biggest gain, electing 16 deputies more than in 2006.^[15] In the Senate, the centre-left coalition was able to elect 39 seats, against 10 won by the opposition.^[16] PT reached an all-time high in the upper house, electing 12 senators and becoming the second largest party in the Senate, behind only the PMDB.^[16] The other parties in the coalition did not have any significant gains, with the exception being the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), which was able to elect the first female Communist Senator in Brazilian history (Vanessa Grazziotin, from Amazonas).^[17]

The anti-Lula bloc suffered substantial losses in both houses. The Democrats (DEM), which had been the second largest party in the Senate during the previous 2007-2011 legislature, was the fourth largest, and managed to elect only 2 seats, reducing their total to 6 seats, tied with the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) from the same coalition.^[16] It also had the largest loss in the Chamber, losing 22 seats, and was closely followed by its ally, the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), which lost 13 seats.^[15] Overall, the Brazil can do more coalition lost control of 44 seats in the Chamber^[15] and 11 in the Senate.^[16] Influential members of the opposition during the Lula administration, such as Arthur Virgílio, Heráclito Fortes, Marco Maciel, and Tasso Jereissati, were not able to obtain re-election and will no longer serve in the National Congress.^[18]

Other opposition members were more successful than the centre-right Brazil can do more coalition. The Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) was able to elect two senators, gaining an extra seat when compared to the previous legislature.^[16] It also kept its three seats in the Chamber.^[15] The Green Party (PV) gained two extra seats in the Chamber,^[15] in spite of losing its only seat in the Senate.^[16]