São Paulo re-elects right winger Mayor Ricardo Nunes over leftist candidate Guilherme Boulos

Brasil de Fato

On Sunday (27), right-wing candidate Ricardo Nunes was re-elected as mayor of São Paulo. Despite the recent blackout that left the city without power and his last-minute absence from debates, the current mayor secured 59.35% of the vote, defeating left-wing candidate Guilherme Boulos, who was supported by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and finished with 40.65%. 

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas and former President Jair Bolsonaro supported Nunes. However, his relationship with the former president seemed awkward. They appeared in public together only three times since August. One of these occasions was at the right-wing demonstration on Avenida Paulista on September 7, but the event was not listed as an official campaign agenda. Moreover, Nunes and Bolsonaro did not appear side by side, and Nunes was hidden among other politicians. 

The understanding was that the former president’s radical stance would harm Nunes’ performance among São Paulo voters, given that Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections in the capital. 

Despite Boulos’ growth in the final stretch, the current mayor’s victory was expected, according to polls published between the first and second rounds. The polls showed a 22% difference between the candidates, with Nunes in the lead. In the latest polls released on Saturday (26), Nunes had 57% of the vote, while Boulos had 43%. 

Ricardo Nunes will begin his next four-year term in one of Latin America’s largest cities on January 1, 2025. 

Governor spreads false claims linking crime and voting 

Boulos held a press conference on Sunday afternoon (27) to respond to unproven accusations made by São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas. The governor claimed that the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital or Capital’s First Command, in a rough translation), a Brazilian organized crime syndicate, had supported vote intentions for him. 

“I think it’s unprecedented for a state governor to make up a lie on election day to try to influence the election results,” said Boulos. 

In a statement, the São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE-SP) said it had learned of the case through the press. “No intelligence report or any official information about this specific case has come to the attention of the TRE-SP.” 

The leftist candidate stated that he had already filed an investigation with the Electoral Court for abusing economic power and disseminating fake news. 

Freitas’s statements were made at the governor’s polling station, where he was joined by Mayor Ricardo Nunes, Boulos’ opponent in the second round.