SAO PAULO — Voters in Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, cast ballots Sunday in a mayoral race pitting incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes against leftist lawmaker Guilherme Boulos.
Nunes has lukewarm support from former President Jair Bolsonaro, while Boulos is an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Various polls published Saturday showed Nunes, who inherited the mayorship after Bruno Covas died of cancer in 2021, is the favorite. His advantage over Boulos is greater than the margin of error of the Datafolha and Quaest polls.
In a day of mild rain, turnout appeared to be smaller than in the first round of voting, with no lines. Voting ended at 5 p.m. local time and the winner was expected to be known a few hours later.
Sao Paulo Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas, a Nunes supporter, claimed during a press conference, without offering evidence, that police had detected an endorsement of Boulos by criminal organization PCC.
Boulos, who frequently accused Nunes of harboring members of the criminal group in his administration, said in a press conference the governor should be arrested for his comments during the vote.
The leftist candidate filed a request at Brazil’s electoral court to make de Freiras, a Bolsonaro ally, unelectable due to his statements.
Boulos on Friday in a last-ditch effort for exposure accepted an invitation to debate self-help guru turned far-right politician Pablo Marçal, who finished third in the first round of voting on Oct. 7. .
Most of the attention in this year’s municipal elections in Brazil has been on Sao Paulo, where the race was marred by episodes of violence involving Marçal in the first round of voting. Boulos, a longtime housing advocate for the poor, seeks to avoid his second consecutive defeat in the race.
Other Brazilian cities with more than 200,000 registered voters were also holding mayoral elections.
In Rio de Janeiro, incumbent Mayor Eduardo Paes was reelected in the first round for his fourth, non-consecutive term. Paes, an enthusiastic fan of Carnival, had Lula’s support but focused his campaign on local issues against Bolsonaro’s candidate, Alexandre Ramagem.
Brazilians were also watching closely for results in Belo Horizonte, one of the country’s biggest cities, where polls suggested Mayor Fuad Noman faced a close race with pro-Bolsonaro candidate Bruno Engler.
The vote in Fortaleza, another of the nation’s biggest cities, was in a dead heat between the candidate from Lula’s Workers’ Party, Evandro Leitão, and pro-Bolsonaro challenger André Fernandes.
___
Follow AP’s Brazil coverage at https://www.apnews.com/hub/brazil
