And you think the US elections are bad

Of course part of my heart is still in Brazil, so it's disappointing but not surprising that elections are still a mess .  There is going to be a runoff between the top two candidates, because incumbant Lula da Silva didn't get the required 50%+1.  (I guess there are only two main parties now, which is a big improvement over the seemlingly hundreds of candidates that ran for president when we lived there.)

Silva's administration has a long history of corruption scandals, having been accused of bribing lawmakers, laundering money, illegal campaign financing and diverting public funds. The scandals have toppled some of Silva's closest aides and much of his party's top brass.

But Silva seemed assured of a first-round victory until two weeks ago when Worker Party operatives were caught allegedly trying to pay $770,000 in cash for information to incriminate Alckmin's Social Democracy Party.

Major newspapers ran front-page photos over the weekend showing stacks of banknotes seized in the Worker Party sting. Six Worker Party officials, including an old friend of Silva's who ran his personal security detail, are accused of a scheme to purchase documents, photos and DVDs they apparently thought would link Serra to kickbacks on the purchase of ambulances while he was health minister between 1998 and 2002.