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Lula seeks Brazil local vote gain Brazil poll result mixed for Lula
(about 17 hours later)
Brazilians have voted in local elections that are expected to reap big gains for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's governing party and its allies. Brazil's local elections have brought mixed results for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party.
Mayors and councils are being elected in Brazil's 5,563 towns and cities. Almost 130 million Brazilian voters went to the polls on Sunday to elect mayors and councillors.
Pre-vote polls suggest that President Lula's Workers' Party (PT) and its partners will take many of the main urban centres. The Workers' Party won mayoral votes in six out of 27 regional capitals but did worse than expected in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo.
The election is also expected to give an indication of who may succeed Mr Lula when he steps down in 2010. The elections are seen as an indicator of who may succeed President Lula when he steps down in 2010.
Brazilians voted amid heavy security, with more than 5,000 soldiers joining 27,000 police in Rio de Janeiro to ensure that militias and drug gangs did not influence the ballot.
In the capital, Brasilia, a man who tried to get into the presidential residence was shot and wounded in the leg after ignoring warnings from guards. Lula was not in the residence at the time.
City run-offs
Campaigning for the elections centred on crime, unemployment, health care and education.
The president's popularity is at an all-time high but his intervention could not produce a victory in Sao Paulo for his party's candidate, Marta Suplicy.
With no clear winner in the city, the vote will go to a second round on 26 October.
The Workers' Party (PT) will also contest run-offs in Rio De Janeiro and the south-eastern city of Belo Horizonte.
With Brazilians voting in 5,563 towns and cities, these elections had been expected to deliver big gains for the PT and its allies.
Brazil's constitution limits the president to two consecutive terms in office and the PT has yet to select a candidate for the presidential election in two years' time.Brazil's constitution limits the president to two consecutive terms in office and the PT has yet to select a candidate for the presidential election in two years' time.
At the moment the likeliest choice would appear to be the powerful figure of Dilma Rousseff, the president's chief of staff, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.At the moment the likeliest choice would appear to be the powerful figure of Dilma Rousseff, the president's chief of staff, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.
Heavy security
Half-way through his second-term, President Lula has a level of support running at close to 80% or higher, opinion polls indicate.
His popularity has soared as Brazil has enjoyed a commodities-driven export boom.
Mr Lula's standing is expected to give candidates for the PT and its 13 allied parties a substantial boost.
The PT may enlarge the number of big cities it controls from the current 13 to 35 while the opposition Social Democrats may take 20, estimates quoted by the AFP news agency suggest.
The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) may win control of 17 the 79 big urban centres.
Big wins for the PT in the local elections would give the party an improved base ahead of the presidential vote in 2010, say analysts.
Campaigning for the elections has centred on crime, unemployment, health care and education.
In the city of Rio de Janeiro the issue of violence has loomed large.
More than 5,000 soldiers have joined 27,000 police to ensure that militias and drugs gangs do not influence the vote.