Brazil's ruling party wins Sao Paulo mayor race

Fernando Haddad, the candidate of Brazil's ruling Workers Party (PT) backed by ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won Sunday's mayoral runoff election in Sao Paulo, according to exit polls conducted by the Ibope institute. The polls indicated as anticipated that Haddad would secure 57 percent of valid ballots, against 43 percent for opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) candidate Jose Serra. Ibope's exit polls have a margin of error of two percentage points. Haddad's projected win over Serra, a former presidential candidate and veteran politician, would come despite the fallout of the high-profile political corruption scandal in which the PT is embroiled. Twenty-five of the 37 former ministers, lawmakers, businessmen and bankers facing prosecution before the Supreme Court have been charged with corruption over a scheme to buy votes in Congress from 2002 to 2005 during Lula's first term. They include Lula's former chief of staff Jose Dirceu. While Lula was cleared, the scandal nearly cost the 66-year-old his re-election in 2006. If his win is confirmed, Haddad, a 49-year-old former education minister, will succeed the incumbent Gilberto Kassab as mayor of Brazil's most populous and wealthiest city. Official results are expected later Sunday. Serra, who previously served as mayor, state governor and senator, finished first on the October 7 first round with 30.7 percent, ahead of Haddad with 29 percent. The new mayor will have the difficult task of modernizing this vibrant metropolis of 11 million people, one of the 12 Brazilian cities that will host the 2014 World Cup. This will include tackling Sao Paulo's glaring economic inequality, inadequate mass transit system, horrendous traffic, shortage of low-income housing and large drug addict population. The Sao Paulo race is the biggest prize in Sunday's nationwide municipal runoff vote which is seen by analysts as a gauge of the balance of power between the PT and the PSDB which have been alternating at the helm of the country for the past 18 years. Nearly 32 million Brazilians in this continent-sized country of 194 million were registered to vote to choose the mayors of 50 cities with more than 200,000 people, including 17 of the country's 26 state capitals.