Sao Paulo mayoral vote goes to runoff between center-right incumbent, leftist challenger

SAO PAULO — 

The contention for politician of Sao Paulo, Latin America's biggest city, volition beryllium decided successful an Oct. 27 runoff betwixt the center-right incumbent and a leftist lawmaker aft they won the apical 2 spots successful intimately divided voting connected Sunday.

Despite polls that suggested helium mislaid momentum precocious successful the campaign, Mayor Ricardo Nunes led the archetypal circular with 29.5% of the votes successful the metropolis of 11.5 cardinal people. In the runoff, helium volition look national legislator Guilherme Boulos, who got 29%, authoritative results showed.

To debar a runoff, a campaigner would person needed to triumph much than 50% of the vote.

Brazilians connected Sunday voted for mayors and metropolis councilors successful much than 5,500 municipal elections, shaping the country's governmental scenery up of a 2026 statesmanlike race.

The Sao Paulo mayoral contention dominated the spotlight aft polls showed 3 candidates virtually tied connected the eve of the election. Far-right governmental novice Pablo Marçal roseate from obscurity and got 28.1% of votes.

While not capable to marque the runoff, the anti-establishment integer influencer surged successful the polls with vitriolic attacks connected adversaries and divided the blimpish ballot contempt a run with small backing and nary TV ads.

He headlined the quality for weeks aft a furious fifth-placed campaigner hit him with a chair during a debate.

"Watching the debates, determination were often things that I didn't expect to happen, similar the chair-throwing oregon the name-calling. I recovered it a small disrespectful to the public," elector Joao Victor Caputo said aft casting his ballot successful Sao Paulo.

Nunes had the enactment of erstwhile hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro, portion Boulos was backed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But some nationalist figures were mostly absent from the campaign.

Candidates adjacent to Lula faced occupation wide arsenic the president's popularity has slipped, but got beardown results successful the country's 2 largest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Conservatives performed powerfully successful respective large towns.

"As agelong arsenic ideology exists, the people's close to take volition exist, for amended oregon for worse," Lula said aft casting his vote. "What we cannot let to hap is that radical ballot uninformed."

Lula mostly avoided taking to the run way for mayoral candidates, though their occurrence would boost his chances successful 2026, erstwhile helium is expected to tally for re-election.

Overall, center-right parties fared champion on with Bolsonaro's Liberal Party, which attracted enactment adjacent though the erstwhile president was banned from seeking bureau until 2030 for unfounded attacks connected Brazil's voting system.

"The anti-establishment views of the close person go the trend," said governmental hazard adept Creomar de Souza, noting that Lula apt kept his campaigning to a minimum to debar being associated with losing candidates.

While Bolsonaro endorsed Nunes, the Sao Paulo contention posed analyzable dynamics for him. The erstwhile president appeared to region himself from Nunes arsenic Marçal grew successful the polls.

Bolsonaro voted successful Rio de Janeiro, wherever helium began his governmental career. But his favored mayoral campaigner Alexandre Ramagem, who led Brazil's spy bureau nether Bolsonaro, suffered a large defeat.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, a Lula ally, won re-election successful a landslide, securing 60% of the votes against Ramagem's 31%.

"We had enactment from radical from close to left, progressives and conservatives. This is an illustration for Brazil," said centrist Paes, who volition instrumentality bureau for his 4th non-consecutive word successful January.

To triumph outright successful the archetypal round, candidates for politician of cities of 200,000 voters oregon much had to summation much than 50% of valid votes.