On 5 October 2008, Brazilian voters will elect mayors and council members in 5,560 municipalities. In cities with 200,000-plus constituents, there will be a second-round runoff election between the two most voted candidates, on 26 October.

On 5 October 2008, Brazilian voters will elect mayors and council members in 5,560 municipalities. In cities with 200,000-plus constituents, there will be a second-round runoff election between the two most voted candidates, on 26 October.

Mayoral elections occur every four years. In 2004, there were 119,821,569 eligible voters registered in 359,326 electoral sections, distributed in 5,563 municipalities. Total electorate was slightly larger (121,391,630), because the Federal District constituency (1,510,709 who live in Brasília and in the so-called satellite cities) and voters residing abroad (59,352) do not participate in the municipal elections.

In 2004, there were 68 cities with more than 200,000 voters. In 60 of these cities, the electorate ranged between 200,000 and one million people. Eight cities had, in 2004, more than one million voters: São Paulo (7,771,503), Rio de Janeiro (4,414,090), Belo Horizonte (1,680,169), Salvador (1,585,346), Fortaleza (1,361,957), Curitiba (1,179,223), Recife (1,030,769) and Porto Alegre (1,005,998 voters).

The Brazilian electorate per state of the Federation and number of municipalities, in the 2004 elections, was as follows:

Acre – 387,657 voters in 22 municipalities

Alagoas – 1,769,250 voters in 102 municipalities

Amazonas – 1,660,217 voters in 62 municipalities

Amapá – 328,577 voters in 16 municipalities

Bahia – 8,954,998 voters in 417 municipalities

Ceará – 5,137,253 voters in 184 municipalities

Espírito Santo – 2,236,176 voters in 78 municipalities

Goiás – 3,610,635 voters in 246 municipalities

Maranhão – 3,745,493 voters in 217 municipalities

Minas Gerais – 13,281,087 voters in 853 municipalities

Mato Grosso do Sul – 1,492,702 voters in 78 municipalities

Mato Grosso – 1,836,140 voters in 141 municipalities

Pará – 3,979,643 voters in 143 municipalities

Paraíba – 2,468,429 voters in 223 municipalities

Pernambuco – 5,651,120 voters in 185 municipalities

Piauí – 1,987,040 voters in 223 municipalities

Paraná – 6,907,327 voters in 399 municipalities

Rio de Janeiro – 10,515,216 voters in 92 municipalities

Rio Grande do Norte – 2,024,288 voters in 167 municipalities

Rondônia – 951,813 voters in 52 municipalities

Roraima – 214,659 voters in 15 municipalities

Rio Grande do Sul – 7,543,188 voters in 496 municipalities

Santa Catarina – 3,996,827 voters in 293 municipalities

Sergipe – 1,243,591 voters in 75 municipalities

São Paulo – 27,055,014 voters in 645 municipalities

Tocantins – 843,229 voters in 139 municipalities.

(Data retrieved from http://www.tre-ms.gov.br/noticias/noticia634.html)

Political parties have up to 5 July to register their candidates and coalitions. The following parties are eligible to run in the 2008 elections:

PCO – Party of the Workers’ Cause

PCB – Brazilian Communist Party

PC do B – Communist Party of Brazil

PDT – Democratic Labor Party

PFL – Party of the Liberal Front

PHS – Humanist Party in Solidarity

PL – Liberal Party

PMN – Party of the National Mobilization

PMDB – Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement

PP – Progressive Party

PPS – People’s Socialist Party

PRONA – Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order

PRTB – Brazilian Labor Renovator Party

PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party

PSC – Social Christian Party

PSDB – Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy

PSDC – Social Democratic Christian Party

PSL – Social Liberal Party

PSOL – Socialism and Freedom Party

PSTU – Unified Workers’ Socialist Party

PT – Workers’ Party

PTB – Brazilian Labor Party

PTN – National Labor Party

PV – Green Party

(Source: http://www2.camara.gov.br/outrosportais/partiesbrasileiros.html).

Of these 24 parties, 11 compose the Lula government power base. Each one of the 27 state governments is supported by coalitions and the same parties that are together in the federal government (for example, the PT and the PMDB), might be enemies in one state and allies in another state.

Thus, there will be all kinds of alliances in the municipal elections, with the most relevant, those that will set the trends and define future scenarios, being those that will take place in the 27 state capital cities, as well as in the 68 cities with more than 200,000 voters and in those cities retransmitting the free TV election campaign.

The Brazilian legislation allows, as of 19 August, the broadcasting of free radio and TV electoral campaigns. The one with the greatest impact is that aired by television, though that only exists in those cities with image broadcasting companies. These cities’ electoral processes, therefore, gain regional importance, since the campaign is viewed by residents of neighboring cities, which do not have a TV broadcasting company and, thereby do not have their own cities’ free TV election program either.

Thinking about that, the PT’s National Executive Board deliberated that, in the case of state capital cities, cities with 200,000-plus voters and cities that broadcast the free election program, occasional alliances with parties not composing the federal government’s base should be treated as exceptions, to be debated and subject to deliberation at the municipal meetings, ratified by the Party’s State Executive Board and mandatorily approved by the PT’s National Executive Board.

In a document approved on 24 March, the PT’s National Board assessed that the party will run in the 2008 municipal elections in a favorable juncture: “Brazil enters into a new development cycle. It’s been four years of sustainable growth, a series that reached the mark of 5.4% of GDP in 2007. A growth drawn by an increase in the households’ income, the recovery of the minimum wage, the generation of some additional millions of formal jobs, and the implementation of strong public policies clearly designed to ensure the social and economic inclusion of the poorest sectors of the Brazilian population”.

“The PT and President Lula’s government pulled the country out of the quasi-default situation it had reached after eight years under the command of the PSDB and the PFL (today the Democrats). We have recovered investment capacity and, with the PAC (the Growth Acceleration Program), devolved to the State its role as growth inducer, reversing the neoliberal logic that predominated during the FHC Era”.

“With these and other actions, President Lula’s government and the PT have been delivering one of the party’s main historic banners: the construction of a new development model for the country, with strong State participation, distribution of wealth and a focus on a mass consumption market”.

“The continuity of this transformative project has been propped, to a certain extent, by the coalition of parties that give support and political stability to the Lula government – which poses to us the challenge of establishing relations with these parties without losing sight of the strengthening of the PT”.

The popularity of the Brazilian federal government will prompt many candidacies, including those launched by the opposition, to avoid directly clashing with Lula. This means, on the other hand, that the PT will not be the only party to be fighting for the positive dividends of the federal administration.

The PT’s main objectives in the 2008 elections are “reelecting its incumbent men and women mayors, enlarging the number of cities run by the party and increasing its participation in local governments run by allied parties”. The Party intends, too, to increase its participation in Municipal Legislatures.

The Party considers that “municipality-related issues will be at the center of the debates”, in respect of which the Party “must present itself with consistent municipal projects and programs, rooted on a perception of the local reality”.

At the same time, the PT advocates “not losing sight of what is really at stake in this year’s elections. There will be a mayoral contest with an eye focused on the future. Hence, it is a contest with a local nature, yet with a projection on future contests. The growth of the PT in these elections amasses strength for the 2010 electoral race.

For this last reason, the PT’s National Board ratified an alliance-driven policy which renders it clear that what is at stake are different and antagonistic projects for the country: “our project opposes completely that of the Toucans (PSDB) and the Democrats (DEM, formerly named PFL), which led the country to economic bankruptcy, privatized the State, generated mass unemployment and broadened the universe of economic and social exclusion”.

Thus, “PT candidates should join local discourse and the great national issues, comparing the accomplishments of the Lula administration with the failures of toucans and Democrats (ex-PFL) – even by pointing out the breakthroughs in renegotiation of the municipal and federative pact, as with an increase in Municipal Participation Funds (FPM) transfers and PAC investments in cities, many of which are governed by oppositionists, among many other actions. The Lula government is the municipalist government. And the nationalization of the campaign should be guided by the upholding of those projects targeting social and infrastructure investments in the cities”.

“Aligning this speech with municipal issues is of fundamental importance. The PT has a long-standing tradition of creative municipal governments targeting the improvement of the life of the population, with several internationally acclaimed projects. The Petista way of governing has even become a strong brand in electoral campaigns. Taking into consideration each reality, we must highlight the well-succeeded experiences of the PT administrations and present government programs which are to build on the following axes: communication, social participation, cultural citizenship and social control; local sustainable development; social policies; ethical, democratic and effective management; planning, territory and financing of municipalities, and, gender, race and sexual orientation issues.“

The PT also considers that the alliance with the social movements is strategic: “the party has strong ties with grassroots’ organizations and should bring them into the campaign, though respecting their autonomy. The electoral campaigns may and should serve to mobilize the social movements and value the militant, by lending arguments to the ideological dispute and the defense of our candidates’ proposals”.

The PT’s alliance policy in 2008 will obey thus the following criteria:

1) programmatic alliances drawing on the proposals for a people-led, democratic government;

2) upholding the Lula government;

3) candidacies with a democratic profile and ethical principles.

The Workers’ Party will strive to build preferential alliances with the PCdoB, PDT, PSB, leftist parties and traditional PT allies, toward forming a leftist block to stand up against the conservative right. The PMDB –given its importance in the Lula government coalition and its capillarity– is considered by the PT as another possibility of alliance, despite its diversity at the municipal level. In addition to these parties, the PT will also make consultations with all the government’s allied base parties.

Occasional alliances with parties outside the Lula government’s power base should be treated as exceptions, which might require a final decision by the Workers’ Party’s National Board.

In a majority of strategic cities there won’t be any alliances between the PT and PSDB/DEM candidacies; one of the most salient exceptions, so far, is Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais.

The PT won the Belo Horizonte city hall in 1992, electing Patrus Ananias (Lula’s current minister of Social Development). The party lost the 1996 elections to Célio de Castro of the Brazilian Socialist Party, but took part in his government with some secretaries, among whom was Luiz Dulci (the incumbent chief-minister of the Lula government Presidency’s Secretariat General). In 2000, Célio de Castro was reelected, having as his deputy Fernando Pimentel, of the PT. Pimentel was elected mayor in the 2004 elections.

Today, Mayor Pimentel proposes that the PT should support a mayoral candidate with ties with the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). The problem is that the PSB nominee has received the explicit support of Aécio Neves, the governor of Minas and one of the PSDB’s pre-candidates to succeed Lula in the Presidency of the Republic in the 2010 elections.

The media and its champions present the alliance proposed as a sign of a strategic coming together of Petistas and Toucans. To a great part of the PT, this alliance is a chimera that only serves to strengthen the presidential aspirations of Aécio Neves (the grandson of Tancredo Neves, the last president to be elected by the Electoral College, in 1985, and who died before being sworn in, giving his place to José Sarney, who governed the country until Fernando Collor’s inauguration).

An example of the escalating tension between the PT and the PSDB are the attacks the opposition’s congress representation has unleashed against Dilma Roussef, Lula’s Chief-of-Staff and steward of the Growth Acceleration Program, who is being pointed as one of the PT potential nominees to run for the Presidency of the Republic.

A confrontation whose importance to the country might be lesser if compared with the arms wrestling between the Lula government’s minister of Finance and the chairman of the Central Bank over the interest rates, the foreign exchange policy and the adjustments made to the Union’s budget, which will be the themes of the next International Periscope’s A view of Brazil.