Brazil: Traditional Parties Weaken Ahead of Municipal Elections

The campaigns for the Brazilian municipal elections began on Sunday amid forecasts announcing that traditional political organizations could lose their voters in big cities.

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"In these municipal elections, it is expected that the Workers' Party (PT) and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) movements weakened in major cities, as it occurred in 2018 elections," expert Emerson Cervi explained.

According to the professor, this happens because traditional parties have smaller councils in big cities than they have in Brazil's interior towns.

"The PT and the PSDB had dominated the political scene for the last 20 years. We would have to see what happens in these elections, taking into account the low popularity that President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies have won in these times of pandemic," Cervi highlighted.

In Sao Paulo, which is the country's most populated city, polls place the Republican candidate for mayor Celso Russomanno in the first place, followed by PSDB member Bruno Covas.

These subnational elections will be the first electoral test for Bolsonaro's associates as the far-right-wing president approaches the halfway point of his four-year term.

On November 15 and 29, citizens will elect mayors, vice mayors, and councilors for over 5,500 municipalities. This will happen amid a pandemic that has left 4,736,831 COVID-19 cases and 141,776 dead so far.