On October 29, 26 million Brazilians voted for municipal governments in cities where no candidate had won an absolute majority after the first round of voting on October 1. Brazil's left-wing Workers Party (PT) won 13 of the 16 cities where it had candidates. The party will govern six of the country's 26 state capitals.
The PT's biggest victory was in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, where mayoral candidate Marta Teresa Smith de Vasconcellos Suplicy won 58.51% of the vote.
In other important victories, PT candidate Joao Paulo came from behind to beat right-wing incumbent Roberto Magalhaes of the Liberal Front Party in the north-eastern city of Recife, winning with 50.38% of the vote. In Porto Alegre, capital of Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, PT candidate Tarso Genro won with 63.51% of the vote, giving the PT its fourth consecutive term in the mayor's office.
The run-offs added strength to the PT's strong showing in the October 1 election, in which it won 14.1% of the vote nationwide, up from 10.6% four years ago.
[Abridged from Weekly News Update.For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact <wnu@igc.org>.]