NEWS IN ENGLISH – Results of first round voting in municipal elections is a mixed bag

08/10/2012 10:19

Iolando Lourenço and Marcos Chagas       Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília – With more than 20 official political parties, election results in Brazil are always mixed.

In the first round of voting in this year’s municipal elections, the PSDB elected the mayor of Maceió, Rui Palmeira, and the PT reelected the mayor of Goiânia, Paulo Garcia.

The PSDB is the main opposition party and the PT, of course, is the party of president Dilma Rousseff.

The PSDB and the PT will go head-to-head in São Paulo in the runoff elections on October 28, when José Serra (the former minister, mayor, governor, senator and presidential candidate) will face Fernando Haddad (the former minister of Education).

PSDB candidates will run in a total of seven runoff elections, besides São Paulo (Teresina, Vitória, São Luis, João Pessoa, Rio Branco, Manaus and Belém). The PT will have candidates in five others (Cuiabá, Salvador, Fortaleza,  João Pessoa and Rio Branco).

The DEM, another opposition party, elected the mayor of Aracaju, João Alves Filho, and will run against the PT in the runoff for mayor of Salvador.

The PMDB, a government party, will have candidates in three runoff elections: Campo Grande (against the PP), Natal (against the PDT) and Florianopolis (against the PSD). The PMDB candidates for reelection in Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, and Teresa Surita, in Boa Vista, won in the first round.

The PSB reelected the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Márcio Lacerda, and the mayor of Recife, Geraldo Júlio.. The PSB will dispute runoff elections in Fortaleza and Cuiabá (with the PT) and Porto Velho (with the PV).

The PDT reelected the mayor of Porto Alegre, José Fortunati, and will dispute three runoff elections: Curitiba (with the PSC), Natal (with the PMDB) and Macapá (with the PSOL).

The PSOL will dispute a runoff election with the PSDB in Belém.

The PP elected the mayor of Palmas, Carlos Amastha, and will run against the PMDB in Campo Grande on October 28.

Other parties that have candidates for mayor in a single capital city in the runoff elections are the PPS, PCdoB, PSC, PV, PTC, PSD and PTB.

Seven political parties in nine capital cities elected mayors in the first round yesterday (Sunday, October 7). They were: PMDB, PSB, PDT, PT, PSDB, DEM e PP.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - PSDB e PT são os partidos com mais candidatos no segundo turno das capitais