Municipal elections in Brazil: A setback for Bolsonaro

In the 95 cities with more than 200,000 voters, no candidate obtained an absolute majority in the first round on 15 November. Despite representing only one percent of Brazil's 5,569 municipalities, a quarter of the country's 148 million voters, including 18 state capitals, turned out for the second round on Sunday.  

The vote was notably faster than in the first round, when an attempted cyber-attack delayed the release of the results by several hours. In Brazil, voting is compulsory and is done through an electronic ballot box, a method considered reliable by specialists but questioned by President Jair Bolsonaro. The ultra-right-wing leader not only questioned Brazil's electronic system today, but also took advantage of the meeting to denounce "fraud" in the US elections, where votes are cast on paper, according to Efe.  

Abstention was very high in Sunday's municipal elections in the country, as recognised by the electoral authorities. The COVID pandemic had a big increase in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's two largest cities. The electoral process itself had to be carried out under strict security measures because of the pandemic, since Brazil is the second country with the most deaths in the world from the disease, with more than 172,000 deaths, and the third with the most cases, with nearly 6.3 million infections. 

On Sunday, the centre-right won the mayoral elections in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the latter city where those most faithful to Bolsonaro suffered a further blow after the defeat of the current alderman, Evangelical Bishop Marcelo Crivella, in the second round of Brazil's municipal elections.  

These elections "have been bad for Bolsonaro; his candidates are losing in the main cities," Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, told AFP. "It is a good thermometer for the country's political temperature. It shows that the president is no longer the kingmaker he was two years ago, when he could get people elected.  

The mayor's office in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city with 12 million inhabitants, was disputed by the current incumbent, centre-right Bruno Covas, and left-wing leader and former presidential candidate Guilherme Boulos, both of whom are critical of the current Brazilian president, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.   

In Sao Paulo, the current mayor, Bruno Covas, of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB, centre-right) won. He was re-elected with 59.3 % of the votes, a big advantage over university professor and homeless leader Guilherme Boulos, who was unable to vote today after testing positive for coronavirus in the final stretch of the election campaign.  

Boulos, the main voice of the left in Brazil after the second round with the Workers' Party (PT) of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed his debacle after losing with 40.6 % of the votes in his favour.  

The Brazilians have favoured the traditional political parties to the detriment of the candidates supported by the president. The loss of Rio de Janeiro, one of its electoral strongholds, is symbolic. 

The economic crisis that has hit Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic has so far had little effect on Jair Bolsonaro's popularity. These municipal elections show that Brazilians aspire to change.   

The municipal elections in Rio de Janeiro, with some 7 million people, were contested by the current mayor, the ultra-conservative evangelical pastor Marcelo Crivella, who has Bolsonaro's support, and the former mayor Eduardo Paes, both of whom are embroiled in corruption scandals. 

In Rio de Janeiro, the mayor's office fell to former mayor Eduardo Paes, who won 64.11% of the vote after receiving critical support from a diverse group of parties on both the left and the right that have in common their animosity towards President Jair Bolsonaro.  

Bolsonaro, who is unformed after leaving the Social Liberal Party (PSL) last year because of differences with its leaders, transferred his public support to a total of 13 candidates, 11 of whom were defeated at the polls.