Election race in Porto Alegre is already polarized – 7/9/2023 – Politics

Just over a year before the municipal elections, the electoral race in Porto Alegre is approaching more polarized than ever, with both sides strengthened.

While Mayor Sebastião Melo (MDB) is sewing a broad alliance for re-election, doubling the bet on Bolsonarism, the left is still looking for a name to head the ticket that can repeat the good vote of the PT in the city in 2022 and, thus, take back the mayoralty that was governed by the party for 16 consecutive years — from 1989 to 2004.

In the middle of the road is the PSDB, which awaits direction from the governor and president of the acronym, Eduardo Leite, on whether to support Melo —of which the party has been based since the beginning of the year, when he took over the Secretariat of Culture— or to launch a third-way candidacy similar to the figure of Leite.

None of the political fields are interested in repeating the scenario of 2020, when there were 13 candidates. The challenge to one of them on the eve of the election, by former mayor José Fortunati (at the time in the PTB), was decisive for Melo to overtake then mayor Nelson Marchezan (PSDB) in the first round and defeat Manuela D’Ávila (PC do B ) in the second.

In order to be re-elected, Melo has been forging an alliance to the right that has become a Bolsonarist for good in 2022. In spite of the MDB, which is Leite’s vice-president’s party, Melo joined figures such as federal deputy Osmar Terra (MDB) to announce support for Onyx Lorenzoni (PL). Melo’s deputy, Ricardo Gomes, migrated to the PL and should run for the same post, making candidates to the right of the mayor unfeasible.

Melo tries to secure an electoral alliance almost as wide as his base in the City Council, where he has votes from 11 of the 16 parties represented: MDB, PL, PP, PSB, PSD, Podemos, PSDB/Cidadania, PTB, Republicans and Solidarity. But there may be cracks.

União Brasil launched the pre-candidacy of state deputy Dr. Thiago Duarte. The PSDB, on the other hand, does not rule out staying with Melo, but evaluates at least two names: the state deputy and former commander of the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police, Delegate Nadine Anflor, and federal deputy Any Ortiz, who is from Cidadania, a party federated with the toucans. The hammer will be beaten by Leite and will take into account, above all, the party’s fear of losing its four seats in the City Council.

In left-wing parties, there is a conviction that 2024 is the greatest opportunity in recent decades to regain mayoralty, and the argument is in the numbers for 2022.

Lula won the presidential election in both rounds in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. Candidate for governor Edegar Pretto (PT) surpassed Onyx, in second place in the race, with a large advantage in Porto Alegre and was less than one percentage point behind Leite (4,707 votes). Senate candidate, Olívio Dutra (PT) won 49.25% of the city’s votes —13 percentage points ahead of the winner, Hamilton Mourão (Republicans).

The main challenge will be to reprise a coalition that unites PSOL again with the federated PT and PC do B. Manuela, who headed the ticket in 2020 with PT support, says she is still undecided about the electoral process next year. At the PT, the assessment is that Manuela lost strength by not running for public office in 2022. The former deputy is leaving in the coming days to spend a year studying in the United States.

In the PT, the main names considered for the head of the ticket are those of federal deputy Maria do Rosário and state deputy Sofia Cavedon. They weigh against them the strong rejection of Rosario by the conservative electorate, and, against Cavedon, being too tied to the teaching profession and unionism.

Rosário, however, has good votes for the Legislative in the city and achieved a good performance when he ran for office in 2008 – he obtained 41% of the votes, but these were times before the clashes with Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in Brasília.

Another considered is Pretto, due to the good vote for governor in 2022, but it is a name with more penetration in the interior than in the capital. In addition, by targeting Piratini in 2026, the PT believes that Pretto is in a strategic position today, as president of Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento).

In PSOL, the most excited name is that of veteran councilor Pedro Ruas, a historical member of the PDT in the 1980s and 1990s who was a candidate for vice-president on Pretto’s ticket by his current acronym. Federal deputy Fernanda Melchionna, 1 of the 13 names that competed in 2020 and who counts great votes for the Legislative since 2016, is running out.

A wing of the PSOL has been courting the name of Olívio to head the ticket, due to his charisma and the symbolism of the left taking back the position that he won for the first time, in 1988.

As the former governor will be 83 years old in 2024, the PT rejects the hypothesis and sees in it an attempt by the PSOL to, by charging an unfeasible name, later justify an independent candidacy.

A consensus among left-wing parties is to have a black person as a candidate for deputy mayor, since 5 black councilors were elected in 2020 and 3 of them were elected state deputies in 2022. Two names stand out: Laura Sito (PT) and Matheus Gomes (PSOL), both elected in 2022.

In addition to representativeness, a candidate of popular origin on the ticket would help the left to face Melo in the peripheral communities of Porto Alegre, where the mayor travels with ease. In 2020, this was a turning point, given Manuela’s image as a middle-class candidate.

Against Melo’s re-election, his own management is currently weighing, which is going through a succession of aggravated crises in 2023. $100 million in purchases of computers, books, and sports equipment that were never distributed to county schools.

Another serious problem is garbage collection. The city government is trying to terminate the contract with the current collection company in court due to the accumulation of dirt in the streets and the precarious state of the containers.

In terms of security, the city government decided to curb alcohol consumption on the shores of Lake Guaíba, the main tourist spot in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, after a shooting there caused panic and a rush. Also on the waterfront is another emblem of municipal management problems: the Usina do Gasômetro, the city’s postcard, has been closed for works since 2017.