By Eduardo Simões and Anthony Boadle
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilians voted on Sunday for mayors and metropolis councilors in additional than 5,500 municipal elections, with polls exhibiting conservative candidates operating robust in a number of main cities, setting the nation’s political panorama forward of a 2026 presidential race.
All eyes are on the mayoral vote in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest metropolis, the place three candidates are operating neck and neck after an aggressive marketing campaign, setting the stage for a second-round runoff on Oct. 27.
Heart-right incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes, who led the race till final week, is tied for second place at 26% of the votes with far-right digital influencer Pablo Marçal, an unprecedented cut up within the conservative vote, in accordance with a ballot on Saturday.
Leftist Congressman Guilherme Boulos, who’s supported by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Employees Celebration, has edged ahead on the eve of the election and is main the sector with 29%, pollster Datafolha discovered.
Marçal, an anti-establishment political novice who has surged within the polls along with his vitriolic assaults on adversaries, ran a social media marketing campaign with little funding and no TV time. He has headlined the information for weeks since a livid fifth-placed candidate hit him with a chair throughout a televised debate.
Polls confirmed that candidates linked to Lula are going through hassle because the president’s recognition has slipped in his third non-consecutive time period.
“So long as democracy exists, the individuals’s proper to decide on will exist, for higher or for worse,” Lula mentioned after casting his vote on Sunday. “What we can not enable to occur is that folks vote uninformed.”
He has largely prevented taking to the marketing campaign path for mayoral candidates, though their success would increase his possibilities in 2026, when he’s anticipated to run for re-election.
On the precise, candidates related to hard-right former President Jair Bolsonaro have fared higher, despite the fact that he was banned from searching for elected workplace till 2030 for his unfounded assaults on Brazil’s voting system.
“The anti-establishment views of the precise have turn out to be the pattern,” mentioned political danger knowledgeable Creomar de Souza.
Lula’s Employees Celebration is liable to not profitable a single state capital, famous Andre Cesar, analyst at Maintain Legislative Advisors.
Each analysts mentioned Lula doubtless saved his campaigning to a minimal to keep away from being related to shedding candidates.
Bolsonaro additionally stayed away from the Sao Paulo marketing campaign, which sophisticated his alliances. He formally endorsed Nunes for re-election, however prevented recording a video for his marketing campaign.
He appeared to distance himself from Nunes as anti-establishment Marçal grew within the polls from a darkish horse to inside a whisker of the runoff. On Sunday, Bolsonaro mentioned he would assist anybody going through Boulos in a possible runoff.
Voting began at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and closes at 5 p.m. (2000 GMT). To win outright within the first spherical, candidates for mayor of cities of 200,000 voters or extra want to realize greater than 50% of legitimate votes.
