The Leadership of the SDTBy Joaquim Xolani After Virgílio Xolani's death, may he rest in peace, the question of the SDT's leadership was brought up. While many assume that he would appoint his close friend Silvester Fiorino as his successor, there's no official note from Virgílio himself.
As such, many people put themselves forward as candidates for president of the SDT, resulting in the party's first-ever leadership election. The election was conducted under a pure one-member, one-vote system, using the instant-runoff electoral system with preferential balloting to calculate the result.
There were, in total, three candidates:
Silvester Fiorino, the Minister of Education and Culture, is viewed as a "sold out scumbag" by some, thought of as a negotiator and true reformist by others.
Ariana Rubinho, the Minister of Agriculture, is a feverous socialist, but a reformist one.
Isaías Valéria, a rather notorious member of the SDT, commands the far-left section of the party and is a defender of anarcho-syndicalism.
During the first round Fiorino managed to gather 43% of the votes, Rubinho secured 28.9% of the votes and Valéria got 28.1% of the votes. This is when preferential voting shows its utility in securing a democratic result, while Fiorino had ample support from the Xolani loyalists and the centrist members, Rubinho managed to convince Valéria to endorse her in the second turn, which led to Ariana Rubinho becoming the second president of the SDT.
In addition to the official election, SDT's youth wing, Juventude Social, also conducted a poll amongst its members. In a surprising turn of events, Isaías won in the JS's poll, a sign of the radicalization of the new generation of political activists.