The mayor gave up running for re-election. The government base split into two groups. A cousin of President Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) entered the race. And the PT, after four straight losses, will try to retake the city hall.
This is the scenario for the election in Jaboticabal, a municipality 342 km from São Paulo that reflects, to a lesser extent, the dynamics of national politics. Folha will cover the small town in this year's elections.
This year's elections in the city of Ribeirão Preto are dominated by the following themes: Criticisms of the PT, Bolsonaro's political inexperience, changes to political parties with antagonistic profiles, and mega-coalitions. The current mayor, José Carlos Hori (Citizenship), 58, will not run for the first time in 16 years.
Hori gave up running for re-election this year because his administration was fined for irregularities with a construction project from the first of his three terms.
Hori says he understood the message from the ballot box in the last election when he won the seat with only 276 votes ahead of Emerson Camargo (Patriota), who is again in the race. The main reason for his withdrawal, however, is the almost certainty that the Clean Record Law would block it.
So who will the mayor support now in the elections? No one, according to him.
His deputy, Vitorio de Simoni (MDB), 46, nominated at the party's convention, is the son of a former mayor (Adail de Simoni, who ruled the city from 1993 to 1996) and is a pre-candidate.
"There have been many meetings over the past year, but due to the lack of convergence of ideas and ideologies, there was no union [with other names of the mayor's political group]," said Vitorio. He considers his ticket the only center-right one, while the other rivals, except Bolsonaro's cousin, would represent the left.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon