2nd round of elections is marked by duels between Lula and Bolsonaro candidates

SÃO PAULO (Reuters) – Voters return to the polls this Sunday to elect in a second round the mayors of 51 cities, 15 of which are capitals, with emphasis on some disputes where the decisive vote will put candidates supported by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The PL, the former president’s party, will have representatives in the second round in nine capitals, while Lula’s PT will go to the decisive round in four. In two of them, Cuiabá and Fortaleza, there will be a direct confrontation between candidates from the current and former president’s parties, with polls pointing to a tight contest in both.

Furthermore, the duel between Lula and Bolsonaro will also take place in capitals even without PT or PL candidates, such as in São Paulo, where the current mayor, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), supported by Bolsonaro, will face federal deputy Guilherme Boulos ( PSOL), enthusiastically supported by Lula.

According to polls, Nunes is expected to win the dispute in the largest city in the country.

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In most cities, the situation is unpredictable, with research pointing to a technical tie between candidates

Lula, who placed his greatest effort in the capital of São Paulo in this year’s municipal elections, was forced to withdraw from his last campaign event with Boulos, on Saturday, after suffering a domestic accident last weekend — a fall in the bathroom of the Palácio da Dawn.

Another capital where there will be a duel between those supported by Lula and Bolsonaro is Belo Horizonte, where first-time Bolsonaro supporter Bruno Engler (PL), who won the first round, will face the current mayor, Fuad Noman (PSD).

According to what the polls indicate, Engler should suffer the upset of Noman, who gained Lula’s support in the second round after the PT candidate, Rogerio Correia, was defeated in the first round of the dispute.

In Porto Alegre, the candidate aligned with Bolsonarism Sebastião Melo (MDB) will face the PT candidate Maria do Rosário as the overwhelming favorite.

Among the capitals where there will be a direct confrontation between PL and PT, Fortaleza should have, according to voting intention polls, a fierce dispute between Bolsonaro’s André Fernandes and PT’s Evandro Leitão.

In Cuiabá, which will also have a direct PL x PT duel, the candidate from Bolsonaro’s party, Abílio Brunini, also appears in a vote-by-vote dispute with PT member Lúdio Cabral.

In the first round, Bolsonaro’s party elected 523 mayors, two of them in capitals — JHC, in Maceió, and Tião Bocalom, in Rio Branco —, while the PT held 251 mayors, none in capitals.

However, the parties that make up the so-called centrão were the big winners of the first round of voting on October 5, which puts them, once again, in a privileged position to form a large group of federal deputies in the 2026 election.

Gilberto Kassab’s PSD was the one that elected the most mayors, with 888, ending the historical hegemony of the MDB, which came in second, with 861. Next came PP, with 752 mayors, and União Brasil, with 589. Combined , these four parties control more than half of the more than 5,500 Brazilian municipalities.

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