Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva squandered what seemed a sure first-round election victory and must now face a run-off vote against an opposition candidate.
Mr Lula, Brazil's first working-class president, fell just short of the 50 per cent of votes he needed to win another four-year term outright in yesterday's election, setting up a showdown with main rival Geraldo Alckmin on October 29th.
Mr Alckmin, who campaigned as a squeaky-clean alternative to the scandal-plagued Mr Lula, said: "I'm going to the second round with a great chance of winning the election. We're going to have an ethical, honest and efficient government."
Mr Lula finished with 48.6 per cent of the votes in the first round while Mr Alckmin took a better-than-expected 41.6 per cent.
The Lula camp had hoped to avoid a second round of voting, which will give the opposition more time to rally support and potentially dig up further evidence of shady campaign tactics by the ruling Workers' Party.
Until recently Mr Lula appeared to be coasting to re-election, bolstered by the support of the poor and working class whose economic fortunes improved on his watch.
But his popularity began to dwindle two weeks ago after Workers' Party operatives were caught trying to buy a dossier apparently aimed at incriminating Mr Alckmin's party in a corruption scandal.
Mr When Lula was first elected in 2002 he pledged to clean Brazilian politics, but he has presided over a number of corruption scandals.