Marcos Chagas and Iolando Lourenço       Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília – In the 50 cities that had runoff elections yesterday, the PT and PSDB  elected the most mayors (they are the country’s principal rival political parties; leaders of the “government” and “opposition”). The PT won in São Paulo, the country’s biggest city that had been run for almost a decade by the PSDB, and in seven other cities, two of them state capitals: João Pessoa (PB) and Rio Branco (AC).

The PSDB won in nine cities in yesterday’s runoff elections, three of them state capitals (Manaus (AM), Teresina (PI) and Belém (PA).

The PMDB won six cities (but were unable to win any state capitals) in yesterday’s runoff elections (however, in the first round of voting it elected over 1,000 mayors demonstrating that it continues to be a very strong regional player; the closest it has managed to get to national leadership is the vice presidency – Michel Temer, the former party president, is Dilma Rousseff’s vice president).

The PSB won six cities yesterday and was one of the parties that showed strong growth (it received over 30% more votes this year than in the last municipal elections in 2008). In first round voting it won 422 cities.

A new party, the PSD, won Florianopolis, capital of Santa Catarina and two other cities in the runoffs – after winning 499 cities in the first round of voting on October 7.

The DEM, after electing 276 mayors and winning one capital on October 7, (Aracaju, SE), won another (Salvador, BA) and one other city in the runoffs.

PDT, PPS and PCdoB elected three mayors each in the runoffs. The PP two mayors. The PV, PSOL, PR, PRB and PTC elected one mayor each.

The PP elected the mayor of the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande. The PTC elected the mayor of São Luís (MA) and the PSOL won in Macapá (AP).  The PDT elected the mayors of two capital cities in the runoffs: Natal (RN) and Curitiba (PR). The PPS won Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo.

As in the first round of voting, with so many political parties getting a piece of the cake, the results are spread out widely. Brazil’s twenty-six capital cities are to be run by eleven different political parties.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - PT e PSDB foram os partidos que mais elegeram prefeitos no segundo turno