Brazil's leftist Workers' Party slips in nationwide polls

Elections for mayors and city governments across 5,568 municipalities in Latin America's biggest country were the first since Dilma Rousseff's impeachment

Brazil's long dominant Workers' Party looked close to losing control of the biggest city Sao Paulo, exit polls have showed after nationwide municipal elections seen as marking a shift to the right.

An exit poll by Ibope on Sunday showed Sao Paulo's incumbent Workers' Party mayor, Fernando Haddad, trailing with 20 per cent behind Joao Doria from the centrist PSDB, with 48 per cent. Unless final results give Doria over 50 per cent, the two will meet again in a second round runoff on October 30.

In Rio de Janeiro, the leader was Marcelo Crivella from the socially conservative Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), considered the political wing of the wealthy evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, an exit poll showed.

Crivella, whose billionaire uncle founded the Universal Church, won 30 per cent of the vote and looked set to face off against Marcelo Freixo from the leftist PSOL, who won 20 per cent, according to an Ibope poll.

The elections for mayors and city governments across 5,568 municipalities in Latin America's biggest country were the first since Dilma Rousseff of the Workers' Party lost the presidency in a bruising impeachment battle in August.

They were also a litmus test ahead of presidential elections in 2018.

Among the earliest to cast a ballot in the financial powerhouse Sao Paulo was Rousseff's replacement, President Michel Temer from the center-right PMDB party.

Temer, who is deeply unpopular and was booed at the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics in August, abruptly changed his schedule to vote two hours earlier than previously announced, getting into the polling station before doors even opened to the public, an AFP reporter observed. According to Folha newspaper the change was to avoid protesters.

But despite widespread public mistrust of Temer, the PSDB and other parties friendly to the new president were forecast to reshape the landscape dominated by the Workers' Party for the last 13 years.

David Fleischer, a political analyst at Brasilia University, predicted the Workers' Party would end up with less than half the mayoral seats it won four years ago. "It will be a disaster for the party," he said.

Brazilians want change as they struggle through a devastating recession and the fallout from a massive embezzlement and bribery scheme centred on prestigious state oil company Petrobras.