Mayor’s elections in Florianópolis: contribution to an electoral history

Abstract

This paper examines every mayor election that took place in Florianópolis under the current party system. Although we already have a considerable amount of studies on presidential elections and, to a lesser extent, on governor elections, the literature on municipal elections is relatively scarce in Brazil. With regard to Santa Catarina’s municipalities, its capital included, such absence is even greater. In briefly presenting the contexts, the candidacies and the outputs of each municipal contest in Florianópolis between 1985 and 2008, this paper aims mainly to give a contribution to the electoral history of those elections. Despite not having the intention of analysing the different aspects involved in each election deeply (the decision process on who should the candidates be, the campaigns, voters’ motivations, etc), this paper outlines a brief interpretation of the outputs and of the most general trends of the period. The contest for mayor at Santa Catarina’s capital has been disputed between the center and the right-wing parties; leftwing parties (specially PT) have shown little electoral strength. Another pertinent aspect to explain voters’ decision in most recent elections seems to be the greater importance of governments’ and candidates’ evaluations, in comparison to parties’ importance.