2024 Fortaleza mayoral election

The 2024 Fortaleza mayoral election will take place in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil on 6 October 2024. Voters will elect a mayor, a vice mayor, and 43 councillors. The incumbent mayor, José Sarto, a member of the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), was elected in 2020 for his first term and intends to run for reelection.

If the most voted candidate on the first round doesn't achieve more than 50% of the votes, a second round will happen on 27 October 2024. The mayor's term will begin on 1 January 2025 and end on 31 December 2028.

2020 Fortaleza mayoral election and Sarto's government
The last mayoral election in Fortaleza, held in 2020, resulted in the victory of the physician José Sarto Nogueira (PDT) in the second round. Sarto obtained 668,652 votes (51.69% of the valid votes), compared to the 624,892 votes (48.31% of the valid votes) obtained by Capitão Wagner (PROS). Sarto's victory represented the victory of a "government of continuity", since the incumbent mayor at the time, Roberto Cláudio, who is also a member of the party, was his main electoral canvasser throughout the election.

Starting in January 2021, Sarto's government was disapproved by more than 50% of the citizens of Fortaleza in opinion polls, and, despite his approval ratings improved throughout 2023 due to a program of investments and interventions in the city, his government disapproval rating was ranked in fourth among the mayors of the 26 Brazilian capitals in a report published by Atlasintel in January 2024. On this opinion poll, Sarto's government was disapproved by 45% of those who were interviewed and only 25% approved his government.

Electorate
In 2024, Fortaleza has 1,765,629 people eligible to vote, which corresponds to around 73% of its total population (2,428,708) according to the 2022 Brazilian demographic census. The city is divided into 17 electoral zones (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 80th, 82nd, 83rd, 85th, 93rd, 94th, 95th, 112nd, 113rd, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th and 118th), with 669 polling stations and 5,400 electoral sections.

Presumptive candidates
In The Workers' Party, alongside Leitão's name, some of the party members were divided between supporting traditional names, such as Luizianne Lins, mayor of Fortaleza from 2005 to 2013 and candidate in 2016 and 2020, and some of them also supported new political figures; for example, the state deputies Larissa Gaspar and Guilherme Sampaio. The advisor of the government of Ceará, Artur Bruno, was also one of the names who were supported in the dispute. Cid Gomes' and his allies decided to join the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) in February 2024, a move that made it easier for the party to support the Workers' Party candidacy; since this decision, it was announced that the Brazilian Socialist Party will nominate the running mate on the Brazil of Hope's ticket. In April 2024, Evandro Leitão obtained the support of the majority of Workers' Party delegates to be the party's nominee for mayor, defeating Luizianne Lins and the other candidates who were in the race. Since the 2022 elections, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), the Workers' Party and the Green Party (PV) joined the coalition Brazil of Hope. Their main goal is to elect more councillors with the entry of Leitão's political group into the coalition. There is also negotiations between the Workers' Party and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to form an alliance in the 2024 elections.

Among other parties, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) started a debate to launch their own candidacy or to invite parties and social movements to join its ticket, even though Adelita Monteiro's, a member of the party, is part of Elmano's government as a state secretary. The party announced Técio Nunes as a candidate in February 2024. The parties that are aligned with the Socialism and Freedom Party are the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and Sustainability Network (REDE); a party which is aligned with the socialists in the PSOL REDE Federation. The Sustainability Network announced a potential candidacy of the environmentalist Cindy Carvalho on 13 March 2024; due to this situation, both parties (PSOL and REDE) entered into an agreement and nominated her as the running mate of Técio Nunes on 4 May 2024.

Workers' Party's primaries
Workers' Party (PT) – Nominee
 * Evandro Leitão – Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2015–present).

Eliminated in primary


 * Luizianne Lins – Councillor of Fortaleza (1997–2002); Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2003–2004); Mayor of Fortaleza (2005–2013) and Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Ceará (2015–present).
 * Guilherme Sampaio – Councillor of Fortaleza (2005–2021) and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2021; 2023).
 * Larissa Gaspar – Councillor of Fortaleza (2017–2023) and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2023–present).

Primaries results

5,813 members of the Workers' Party of Fortaleza participated in the internal elections to choose a nominee for mayor. The primary was held on 7 April 2024.

Potential candidates
About two years before the election, Sarto stated that he could run for re-election as long as it was a Democratic Labour Party's decision. Throughout 2023, his candidacy was taken for granted by political figures of the party such as Roberto Cláudio, the interim national president of the party André Figueiredo and the former governor of Ceará Ciro Gomes. At the same time, Ciro's political group had internal disputes in the state directory with his own brother Cid Gomes, who is an ally of the governor Elmano de Freitas, from the Workers' Party (PT).

Elmano supported an alliance between the two parties, since this political alliance has been broken in a state level since the election for governor in 2022 (which was won by Elmano) and since 2012 in mayoral elections. This issue made some of the state deputies of Ceará support the candidacy of the president of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará, Evandro Leitão, for mayor in 2024. Since Leitão didn't have any space in the party to run for mayor, he left the Democratic Labour Party and joined the Workers' Party afterwards in order to run in the 2024 elections.

In February 2023, the politician Capitão Wagner, now a member of Brazil Union (UNIÃO), announced that he could run again for mayor of Fortaleza in 2024, a position for which he ran in 2016 and 2020. His optimism came from the fact that he lost the last election to Sarto by a small margin of votes and by the fact that he was also the most voted candidate in Fortaleza in the 2022 Ceará gubernatorial election. Wagner even supported an alliance with names from the conservative right in Ceará, such as the federal deputy André Fernandes, from the Liberal Party (PL), and the senator Eduardo Girão, from the New Party (NOVO). Both Fernandes and Girão announced their own candidacies in 2023. Their political groups are linked to the former president Jair Bolsonaro and to the opposition in a statewide and city level.

Brazil Union (UNIÃO)


 * Capitão Wagner – Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2011–2012; 2015–2018); Councillor of Fortaleza (2013–2014) and Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Ceará (2019–2023).

Democratic Labour Party (PDT)


 * José Sarto – Councillor of Fortaleza (1989–1994); President of the Municipal Chamber of Fortaleza (1990–1992); Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (1995–2020); President of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2019–2020) and Mayor of Fortaleza (2021–present).

Liberal Party (PL)


 * André Fernandes – Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ceará (2019–2023) and Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Ceará (2023–present).

New Party (NOVO)

Popular Unity (UP)
 * Eduardo Girão – Senator for Ceará (2019–present).

United Socialist Workers' Party (PSTU)
 * Haroldo Neto – Historian.


 * Zé Batista – Union organizer and candidate for governor in the 2022 Ceará gubernatorial election.

Withdrawn candidates
Sustainability Network (REDE)


 * Cindy Carvalho – Environmentalist. The PSOL REDE Federation entered into an agreement and nominated her as the running mate of Técio Nunes.

Outgoing Municipal Chamber
The result of the last municipal election and the current situation in the Municipal Chamber is given below:

First round
2024 2023

Second round
Capitão Wagner and José Sarto Capitão Wagner and Evandro Leitão José Sarto and André Fernandes Hypothetical scenario with Luizianne Lins

Rejection of candidates
In some opinion polls, the interviewee can choose more than one alternative (the so-called "multiple rejection"), therefore, the sum of the percentages of all candidates can exceed 100% of the votes in some scenarios.