Brazil's local elections to test Bolsonaro’s appeal

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - Brazil is heading to municipal elections as the first round is set on Sunday amid the latest polls that show a decrease in support for President Jair Bolsonaro in the biggest cities.

More than 150 million voters will cast ballot in over 5,500 municipalities in the country. The second round of the race will take place on Nov. 29.

The municipal elections were originally scheduled for October but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic in July by the National Congress.

The polls conducted in early November show that Bolsonaro is losing popularity in some of the biggest cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janerio, where he backs right-wing candidates, amid weak coronavirus response and embezzlement charges against his eldest son.

Besides testing Bolsonaro's appeal by Brazilians, the local elections also show importance as a record number of women, Black people and military officials contesting for seats.

Black Brazilians expectedly represent about 50% of the total candidates, while women 33.6% and more than 7,000 military officials are set to be part of the race.

In the 2018 presidential elections, 78-79% of eligible voters went to cast a ballot, however, the turnout may go down this Sunday as Latin American country is one of the worst-hits by the pandemic.

Brazil has reported more than 5.7 million coronavirus cases and nearly 165,000 deaths, according to a running tally of the US-based Johns Hopkins University.