Today there were elections in Austria and Brazil.
In Austria, with all but absentee ballots counted, the centre-left Social Democrats won 35.7% of the vote, narrowly beating the the People’s Party at 34.2%.
Even as results were being counted, Mr Schuessel said it would take “a small miracle” for his party to win.
The Social Democrat’s Alfred Gusenbauer is likely to become the new chancellor.
The far right Freedom Party, which ran an anti-immigrant campaign, came in at third place with 11%, followed by the Greens at 10%.
The far-right party founded by Joerg Haider, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, seems just to have made it into parliament with 4% – this, despite its split from the Freedom Party last year.
Before the vote, opinion polls had suggested a narrow victory for Mr Schuessel’s party.
Coalition negotiations are likely to be time-consuming and difficult, reports the BBC’s Bethany Bell in Vienna.
The most obvious alliance is a grand coalition between the People’s Party and the Social Democrats, an option preferred by many Austrians.
Otherwise, the conservatives could in theory try to form a coalition with the two far-right parties. But so far, Austria’s leading politicians are refusing to commit themselves.
Mr Schuessel took office in 2000 in a controversial alliance with the far-right Freedom Party, then led by Mr Haider. He won re-election in 2002.
More than six million Austrian voters were eligible to vote for the 183-seat parliament.
UPDATE: his result will be important in the near future, especially with the negotiations with Turkey about their entry in the UE. Pajamas Media links to a post by Michael Stickings: Austria’s electoral uncertainty, where he writes:
(Austria uses a List-Proportional Representation electoral system for federal partliamentary elections. In simple terms, this means that seats in the National Council are allocated to parties in proportion to their shares of the popular vote.)
Millions of Brazilians are voting in presidential elections with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva seeking a second term.
Lula, as the president is known, is seeking the 50% of votes needed to win outright victory in the first round.
But his lead in opinion polls narrowed ahead of the vote, amid allegations of corruption and dirty tricks involving his Workers’ Party.
His main rival is Geraldo Alckmin, the centre-left, business-friendly former governor of Sao Paulo state.
Since Lula, the first left-winger to hold the country’s highest office in 50 years, was elected in a landslide victory in 2001, his welfare programmes have helped him gain strong support among the country’s poor.
But his once-commanding lead in the polls has been dented by a series of corruption scandals involving his Workers’ Party.
Final pre-election opinion polls showed Lula dipping a little below the 50% of the vote required to avoid a second-round run-off, while Mr Alckmin’s scores had risen a few percentage points to about 35%.
This same day Brazil was mourning the victims of a plane crash with 155 people on board. More about Brazilian elections on IHT.
UPDATE: You can read about Brazil’s elections in Publius Pundit.
Los socialdemócratas han ganado en Austria por un estrecho margen. Se convierten en el partido más votado, con 37% de los votos, frente al Partido del Pueblo (derecha), con 34,2%. El partido de extrema derecha, Partido de la Libertad, ha obtenido un 11% y la Alianza por el Futuro de Austria, de Jörg Häider, un 4%. Se prevé un período de negociaciones duro y difícil, pero la mayoría de los austríacos quieren un gobierno de coalición entre los social-demócratas y los conervadores.
En cuanto a Brasil, se está llevando a cabo la votación en estos momentos. El favorito es Lula da Silva, a quien las encuestas dan un poco menos del 50% de los votos, a pesar de los últimos escándalos, lo que le obligará a someterse a la segunda ronda. El día de la votación en Brasil ha sido triste por causa del accidente de avión en el que han perecido 155 pasajeros.
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