Brazil's ruling party faces Sao Paulo Run-off vote
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party (PT) won the mayoralty of six state capitals in Sunday's municipal vote but was forced into a run-off to defend its hold on the race's biggest prize, the city of Sao Paulo.
With 98 percent of Sao Paulo voting stations counted, opposition candidate Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) had 44 percent of the city's vote versus 36 percent for Marta Suplicy, the incumbent mayor of Brazil's financial and industrial heart.
The second round vote will be Oct. 31."The message the electorate is sending is we want democracy, we don't want a sole party regime," Serra, who lost the 2002 presidential race to Lula, told reporters.
Home to more than 10 million people and the nation's third-largest budget, Sao Paulo is key for both parties as they ready themselves to dispute the presidency of Latin America's largest country in two years.
Across the nation, some 120 million of 180 million Brazilians voted for mayors and city council members in 5,562 municipalities, from bustling metropolises to sleepy cowtowns.
Although most of the campaigns have focused on quotidian issues like public transport, the municipal votes are also seen as a test of how the PT has fared since Lula swept into office two years ago promising more social and economic justice.
Nationwide, the PT seeks to more than double the nearly 200 mayoral positions it won in mostly large cities four years ago. With the economy growing at a quick rate and unemployment decreasing, it hopes Lula's rising popularity will help it expand its electorate from its traditional urban base and make in-roads in Brazil's vast interior.
By early Monday, 91 percent of the 5,562 municipalities up for grabs had been tallied up, with the PT winning 352 of those mayoralty races, according to the electoral court.
Although the count so far was below its target, the PT won two large state capitals, Belo Horizonte and Recife, and four smaller capitals: Macapa, Aracaju, Rio Branco and Palmas. Aside from Sao Paulo, it will head to a run-off in eight other capitals.
As expected, Rio de Janeiro's mayor Cesar Maia was reelected, making him a possible candidate for president in the 2006 race under the right-wing Liberal Front Party.
"A WHOLE OTHER ELECTION"
The dispute between Serra, a career politician, and Suplicy, a former TV sex psychologist, has been one of the most acrimonious of the election season, with both sides accusing each other of dirty campaigning.
Although opinion polls indicate Serra should win the runoff, Lula's chief of staff, Jose Dirceu, appeared confident Suplicy could pull ahead in the coming weeks. "The second round is a whole other election," he told reporters.
But even if the PT loses Sao Paulo, political analysts say the party could do well overall if it achieves its goal of extending its electoral base.
The second place in Sao Paulo "is a hit for the PT because Sao Paulo is a big prize, but the PT is apparently doing well in other cities. There are some surprises that could balance out the result in Sao Paulo," said David Fleischer, a political analyst at the National University of Brasilia.
With electioneering out of the way, the PT would be able to get back to its reform program, notably involving bankruptcy law reform and a framework for private investment in public infrastructure projects.
A PT victory should also strengthen the moderate wing of the party, whose decision to pursue market-friendly economic policies has irked some of the party's more radically leftist members, said Mario Mesquita, chief economist at ABN Amro in Sao Paulo.
Approval of controversial initiatives in Congress, such as autonomy of the Central Bank, would be less likely if the party fails to perform so well, analysts say.
(From Reuters, October 04, 2004)
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