BRAZIL: Elections Strengthen Lula’s PT, Cardoso’s Party

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 4 2004 (IPS) - The local elections held Sunday in Brazil consolidated the Workers Party (PT) and Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) as the country’s two main political forces, but a number of smaller parties also made significant inroads.

Leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party is seen as the big winner of the elections. Of the 11 state capitals where the race for mayor was decided in this first round of voting, the PT captured six, while more than doubling the total number of municipalities it governs nationwide.

But the PT could be headed for defeat in the run-offs on Oct. 31, when some key positions will be at stake, such as the mayoralty of Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paolo.

PT candidate and incumbent Mayor Marta Suplicy received only 35.8 percent of the votes, while the PSDB’s José Serra took 43.5 percent, despite the fact that the polls had predicted a tie.

Serra was the PSDB presidential candidate who lost out to Lula in 2002.

Former president and PSDB leader Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who defeated Lula in the 1994 and 1998 presidential elections, called for a united front against the PT in the run-offs, to curb what he called the "anti-democratic impulses" of the ruling party.

An opposition win in Sao Paolo would serve to re-establish balance in Brazilian politics and prevent the total domination sought by the PT, Cardoso said.

The PT is also facing the threat of a particularly damaging loss in Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which has been governed by the party for 16 years.

Porto Alegre was the birthplace and remains the host city of the World Social Forum, the global ‘alternative’ summit to the annual World Economic Forum of the political and economic movers and shakers in the resort town of Davos, Switzerland.

In the run-off, PT candidate Raul Pont will be up against José Fogaça from the Popular Socialist Party (PPS). Although Pont earned a larger percentage of votes in the first round (37.6 percent against 28.3), the PPS candidate will likely garner more support among those who voted for the other runners-up.

PT president José Genoino acknowledged that despite the party’s triumphs in the elections so far, it "will have to work harder in the second round."

But municipal elections are a local matter, he added, downplaying any possible repercussions for the next presidential vote, in 2006.

Although elections were held in all of Brazil’s 5,562 municipalities on Sunday, everyone’s attention has been focused on the 26 state capitals, given their greater political impact. Those who govern these cities will have the greatest influence on the destiny of the country as a whole.

There will be run-off votes for mayor in 15 state capitals, with the PT participating in nine and the PSDB in seven. In four capitals, the two parties will be facing off directly.

Nevertheless, the party with the greatest number of mayors elected was the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). Although it is the largest political party in Brazil, it is a major force in small and medium-sized municipalities, which have little impact nationally.

The PMDB has had four decades to consolidate its power, since it was the only legally permitted opposition to the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. With the votes counted in 99 percent of polling stations, it had won 1,036 mayoral seats.

For its part, the Liberal Front Party (PFL), victorious in 1,028 municipalities in the last elections, four years ago, will probably not reach even 800 this time.

The losses suffered by these two traditionally strong parties stem largely from the gains made by the PT, predicted to end up with over 400 mayoral positions, as opposed to 187 in 2000, and by the PSDB, which will likely win over 1,000 in all.

But a number of smaller parties also made impressive advances, some of them practically doubling the number of municipalities they govern. This is the case, for example, of the Liberal Party, which will take power in 380 municipalities, as well as the PPS and Democratic Labour Party (PDT), both expected to elect close to 300 mayors each.

Considerable progress was also made by the Green Party, which tripled its representation by winning 44 municipalities and garnered a total of 1.2 million votes, twice as many as four years ago.

Of the 27 parties that ran in the local elections, the majority are so-called "midget parties" that doubled their votes in some cases and managed to capture several dozen mayoralties.

In the Brazilian interior, for example, the Solidarity Humanist Party elected 23 mayors.

The growth of the country’s smaller parties and the staying power of traditionally strong parties in outlying areas, despite some losses, have helped to allay fears that polarisation between the PT and PSDB could turn Brazil into a two-party country.