Elections 2004 in Brazil

On October, 31st, voters from many large Brazilian cities voted in second round for mayors.
On October 3rd, all cities conducted elections for mayor and councilmen.
A second ballot (results from the first ballot were completely disregarded) for mayor occured in cities where: 1) the number of voters is larger than 200,000 and 2) there was not a candidate with absolute majority (half of total votes plus one) of votes.
As usual, federal troops (Army) were called to guarantee peace and order in some cities, but the elections went smoothly all across the country.
The official results of the election can be found at this page of the Superior Electoral Tribunal. Check out also this page where results are displayed geographically.

A few remarks:
the most observed election was in São Paulo, capital city of the State of São Paulo. Candidates were Marta Suplicy, from the Worker´s Party PT, and José Serra, from Social Democratic PSDB; Serra was the defeated candidate to Presidency in 2002, and Marta had ostensive support from President Lula and other dignitaries. Serra won, by a good margin (56% - 44%).
Worker´s Party lost also in Porto Alegre, capital city of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre is the city which hosts the World Social Forum, the counterpart of the World Economic Forum). This was also emblematic, because PT had been ruling the city for the past 16 years, and was often mentioned as an evidence that the PT way of ruling would satisfty citizens.
Worker´s Party had the biggest growth, compared to previous local elections; the Party now governs more cities than any other.
PT won in nine capitals: Belo Horizonte, Recife, Aracaju, Macapá, Palmas, Rio Branco, Fortaleza, Porto Velho e Vitória. In Fortaleza, the winner candidate is affiliated with PT, but shows strong disagreements with the Federal government; the same happens, to a lesser degree, in Vitória. PSDB won in São Paulo, Curitiba, Cuiabá, Florianópolis and Teresina. In the city of Rio, the current mayor, Cesar Maia, managed to be re-elected in the first round; Rio is the only capital city which will be ruled by PFL, which used to be the second largest Party in Brazil.
Many old names (coronéis) of politician either lost elections or saw their candidates loose; among them: Antonio Carlos Magalhães, in Bahia; José Sarney, in Maranhão; Antonio Garotinho, in Rio; Paulo Maluf (recently charged with criminal accusations), in São Paulo.
Next elections in Brazil will be in 2006, in Federal and State levels.


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