Ruling Party in Brazil Loses in 2 Key Runoff Votes

In a midterm election setback to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the ruling Workers’ Party lost its hold Sunday on the mayoralty of this sprawling metropolis of 10 million people, South America’s largest city.

The party also was defeated in another runoff race in Porto Alegre, a traditional leftist bastion in southern Brazil that has had a mayor from the Workers’ Party for the last 16 years.

The poll results in the two cities, among the country’s most important state capitals, represented a disappointing coda to a municipal election season that otherwise produced significant gains for the Workers’ Party, or PT, especially in Brazil’s vast interior, away from the urban centers where it does best.

Sunday’s runoff elections, four weeks after first-round contests in Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities, sealed the PT’s grip on nearly 400 cities, double the number it won four years ago. Among its notable victories Sunday were in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceara state, and Vitoria, the capital of Espirito Santo.

Earlier, the party had scored outright first-round wins in Belo Horizonte and Recife, two other major capitals, as well as in a number of smaller towns in the countryside, where the party’s following has been weaker.

Still, the loss of Sao Paulo, whose mayor occupies one of Brazil’s most high-profile political posts, was a bitter one for the PT, which got its start here. Especially embarrassing for Lula is that the new mayor-elect, Jose Serra, is the man he beat for the presidency in a landslide two years ago.

This time, with most precincts reporting, Serra was headed for a convincing win over Lula’s preferred candidate, incumbent Marta Suplicy, a veteran party activist. Serra, a onetime national health minister, capitalized on dissatisfaction with Suplicy’s record on health and transportation and with voter resentment of what many consider her imperious attitude.

Serra’s victory means that both the governorship and mayoralty of Sao Paulo state and city -- Brazil’s financial and industrial nerve center -- will be controlled by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, putting it in a position to mount a potential challenge to Lula in the 2006 presidential race.

But Lula’s chief advisor, Jose Dirceu, dismissed speculation that the loss in Sao Paulo might trigger changes in national policy or even a Cabinet reshuffle.

“There won’t be any changes before December,” Dirceu said. “After that, there may be some adjustments, but more with the objective of serving the government’s priorities.”

Sunday’s runoff here ended an expensive, often nasty campaign that outspent any previous race for mayor.

Although some analysts had cast the contest as a referendum on Lula halfway through his term as president, polls suggested that voters were concerned more with local issues and personalities. Many criticized Suplicy, a former sex therapist, as being arrogant, and opted for the comparatively colorless Serra despite the fact that his campaign offered almost no policy proposals.

At a gathering of elderly voters last week, Suplicy cried as she spoke of how difficult it was to be a powerful woman in a male-dominated world.

But she was more stoic Sunday night in conceding defeat.

“I want to thank the people of Sao Paulo for what I’ve had these four years and for everything I’ve been able to do for the city,” she told supporters. “The struggle continues.... I want to congratulate my opponent and wish him the best government possible.”