The Brazilians began to elect their mayors on Sunday during the second round of municipal elections where attention is focused on the two largest metropolises in the country, Sao Paulo and Rio, and some large cities such as Recife or Porto Alegre that a left under renovation hope to win.
Offices opened at 7:00 a.m. local time, a priority schedule for the elderly and at risk, as part of a strict health protocol against the coronavirus which has killed more than 172,000 people in eight months in Brazil.
The pandemic has shaken up the electoral calendar, with a six-week postponement of the poll, and the campaign was mainly carried out on social networks.
For this second round of voting – electronic and compulsory – 38 million Brazilians must elect for four years the mayors and municipal councilors of 57 cities, including 18 state capitals out of the 26 in Brazil.
In Sao Paulo, the economic capital and largest metropolis of the country with 12.5 million inhabitants, the 40-year-old outgoing mayor Bruno Covas, of the PSDB (center right), is favorite, according to the Datafolha institute, with 55% voting intentions in front of Guilherme Boulos (45%), of the Socialism and Freedom Party (Psol).
Mr. Boulos, 38-year-old incarnation of a renewed left, saw the announcement on Friday of his contamination by Covid-19 deprive him of a last high-audience debate on TV Globo against Mr. Covas, while their gap voices were reduced.
The quarantine of the one who is perceived as a possible successor of ex-President Lula, historic leader of the Brazilian left, prevents him from going to vote in these decidedly atypical municipalities.
In Rio de Janeiro, mass is said for the outgoing mayor and ex-evangelical pastor Marcelo Crivella, promised a stinging defeat in the “Marvelous City” of 6.7 million inhabitants with 32% of the votes against 68% in the former mayor Eduardo Paes (2009-2016), of the DEM party (center right), according to Datafolha.
Presidential of 2022
The city of Recife (northeast) offers a game in the form of family rifts between cousins and supporters of the young progressive guard: Joao Campos, 26, of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB, center left), is opposed to Marilia Arraes, 36 years old, from the Workers’ Party (PT, left).
A final poll places these two grandchildren of the former governor of Pernambuco Miguel Arraes (1916-2005) in strict equality.
Porto Alegre (south) also promises to be very tight: Manuela d’Avila, also young (39 years old), qualified for the second round under the label of the Communist Party of Brazil, allied to the PT of the former -President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. She is in a pocket square with the centrist candidate Sebastiao Melo.
These municipal elections – the first mid-term electoral test for Jair Bolsonaro – will give indications on the state of the forces before the presidential election of 2022 where the far-right head of state will put his mandate back into play.
He suffered a setback in the first round of November 15: the majority of the candidates he had supported failed and the traditional center and center-right parties were revived.
Without a party for a year after a wandering which saw him successively affiliate to nine political parties, Jair Bolsonaro “is not in great shape for 2022”, estimates political scientist David Fleischer, of the University of Brasilia.
If Mr. Bolsonaro had been easily elected by presenting himself as an anti-system candidate despite his 27 years in office, the message of the 1st round seems to have been that he “is not the phenomenon that people imagined”, estimates Michael Mohallem, from the Getulio Vargas Foundation. “If this impression is confirmed, he will struggle to be re-elected” in 2022.
Record unemployment
The poll comes as the largest country in Latin America sees a second wave of coronavirus arrive, and the epidemic has plunged it into recession and propelled unemployment to a record high, with more than 14 million unemployed. -employment.
Cities are confronted with a lack of resources in health – particularly acute with the current pandemic – education, public transport or housing, but also debt, corruption and violence.
Most offices close at 5:00 p.m. local time, results are expected a few hours later.