New political scenario unveiled after elections in Brazil

The first round of municipal elections in Brazil having transpired with no major incidents, results show that 27 municipalities in the country (18 of which capital cities) now await a second round of vote for mayor, to be held on October 30.

Seven of the 20 current mayors managed to be reelected in the first round in the capitals Boa Vista, Salvador, Teresina, Rio Branco, Natal, Palmas, and João Pessoa. The current mayors of Manaus, São Luís, Recife, Fortaleza, Macapá, Vitória, Maceió, and Belém will now face their opponents in the runoffs. Winners swear in on January 1, 2017.

In São Paulo, Brazil's largest city, candidate João Dória Jr, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), the main opponent of the Workers' Party (PT), of which former Presidents Lula and Dilma Rousseff are members, won outright, with a vote count of 3,085,187 (53.29% of valid votes), followed by current mayor Fernando Haddad (with 16.70%), of the PT.

In a statement, Dória Jr expressed his gratitude, and pledged to dedicate his government to the poorest. He acknowledged the role of Operation Car Wash in his victory, and said his election shows “new winds” in Brazilian politics.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second biggest city, candidate Marcelo Crivella, a right-wing senator and an evangelical bishop at Igreja Universal, is set to face Marcelo Freixo in the leftist Mudar é Possível (“changing is possible,” in a literal English translation) coalition. Crivella got 27.76% of the valid votes, and Freixo 18.31%.

The main change observed in the first round of elections in 2016 compared to 2012 was the performance of the PT, which failed to come to par with the PSDB in the capitals. In 2012, the two parties were balanced. This year, the PT managed to reelect in the first round only the mayor of Rio Branco, capital city of the small state of Acre. The PSDB, in turn, in addition to taking eight hopefuls to the next round, rose the number of elected mayors in the first round.

As for gender, of the 36 women who competed in the mayoral elections in the capitals, one succeeded in winning outright: Teresa Surita, also reelected in Boa Vista, Roraima. Surita was also the mayoral hopeful with the highest percentage of votes. A decisive factor in her performance, she argues, was the reduction in campaigning costs brought about by the new law, approved last year.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira