Rio mayor Paes re-elected
Riding a wave of support from Rio’s slums, Eduardo Paes was re-elected mayor and now takes up the challenge of overseeing major infrastructure projects ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Riding a wave of support from Rio’s slums, Eduardo Paes was re-elected mayor on Sunday and now takes up the challenge of overseeing major infrastructure projects ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Paes, a member of the centrist PMDB backed by the ruling Workers Party (PT), got 64.6 per cent of the vote, easily defeating his ultra-leftist rival Marcelo Freixo with 28.1 per cent.
“We are going to work together over the next four years,” said the incumbent, whose party is a member of President Dilma Rousseff’s ruling coalition.
In municipal elections seen as a key test ahead of presidential polls two years from now, some 139 million Brazilians were called upon to elect 5,561 mayors and 48,000 municipal councilors for four-year terms. Around 450,000 candidates represented more than 20 political parties.
The surprise came in Sao Paulo, where campaign frontrunner Celso Russomanno was shut out of the key mayoral race.
Opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) candidate Jose Serra will face off against PT rival Fernando Haddad in a runoff vote scheduled for October 28.