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Brazil votes in municipal elections, controversial bishop elected as mayor of Rio

Xinhua, October 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Almost 33 million Brazilians in 57 municipalities voted on Sunday in the second round of the country's municipal elections.

Polling stations opened from 8 a.m. local time in 57 municipalities, including 18 provincial capitals, where two candidates remained in the race to be mayor.

In these 57 places all inhabited by over 200,000 people, no one candidate obtained over 50 percent of the vote in the first round on Oct. 2.

The army had been deployed in 12 cities with the Ministry of Defense saying in a statement that the measure was taken to allow the population to vote in peace.

In the first round, the army and police were deployed to 467 municipalities across 14 states.

Eyes were turned to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city, where conservative evangelist, Marcelo Crivella, and left-wing candidate, Marcelo Freixo, were battling to be mayor.

As predicted by most pre-election polling, Crivella won handily, with almost 60 percent of the vote, according to results from the Superior Electoral Court. Crivella is a controversial figure as an evangelical bishop who has spoken out against Catholics and homosexuality.

Crivella will replace Eduardo Paes, mayor since 2009, who oversaw the city's hosting of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

In the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais, Alexandre Kalil, known as a football executive, was set to beat out his rival, Joao Leite, as polls closed.

In the city of Curitiba, capital of the southern state of Parana, Rafael Greca was re-elected mayor, almost 20 years after first having served in that role from 1993-1997.

At least 48 people were arrested over the course of the day for violating electoral laws. The Superior Electoral Court said in a statement that 40 of them were arrested for campaigning inside or near a polling place, three for illegal propaganda, one for the illegal use of a microphone and four for unrevealed reasons. Endit