Voters in Brazil's largest city choose a mayor following tumultuous campaign

FILE - A view of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

SAO PAULO — Voters in Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, started going to the polls Sunday in a mayoral race pitting incumbent Mayor Ricardo Nunes against leftist lawmaker Guilherme Boulos.

Nunes has lukewarm support from former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro while Boulos is an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Different polls published Saturday showed Nunes, who inherited the mayorship after Bruno Covas died of cancer in 2021, is the favorite to win. His advantage against Boulos is greater than the margin of error of the Datafolha and Quaest polls.

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Boulos, in a last-ditch effort for exposure, on Friday 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. At the end of the debate, Marçal urged his voters not to vote Sunday. Lower turnout could work against Nunes.

Most of the attention in this year's round of 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, has been campaigning nonstop to avoid his second consecutive defeat in the race.

Other Brazilian cities with more than 200,000 registered voters are also holding mayoral elections.

In Rio de Janeiro, incumbent Mayor Eduardo Paes was reelected in the first round of voting 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 will be also watching closely for results in Belo Horizonte, one of the country’s biggest cities, where polls suggest Mayor Fuad Noman faces a close race with pro-Bolsonaro candidate Bruno Engler.

The vote in Fortaleza, another of the nation’s biggest cities, is in a dead heat between the candidate from Lula's Workers' Party, Evandro Leitão, and pro-Bolsonaro challenger André Fernandes.