SAO PAULO, Oct 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Former president Jair Bolsonaro's rightwing party finished first Sunday in Brazil's municipal elections, including a slight margin in Sao Paulo, the economic capital.

Outgoing Sao Paulo mayor Ricardo Nunes, a Bolsonaro ally, claimed 29.4 percent of the votes in this first-round voting, while Guilherme Boulos, representing the leftist camp of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, garnered 29 percent, election officials said.

Outsider Pablo Marcal, a populist influencer accused of spreading disinformation, had surprised Brazil by turning the Sao Paulo vote into a three-way race, but in the end he finished third with 28.1 percent and was knocked out. The final round of voting is October 27.

Bolsonaro's party won two mayoral races among 26 state capitals and will proceed to the second round in nine others.

However, not all races worked out in Bolsonaro's favor.

In Rio de Janeiro, centrist Eduardo Paes won a fourth term with 60.4 percent of the votes, coming out ahead of Bolsonaro's former intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem at 30.8 percent, despite the former president's support of the latter.

The overall results will be viewed as a measure of the forces of left and right -- embodied, respectively, by Lula and his predecessor Bolsonaro -- as both sides hope to place as many supporters in town halls as possible.

More than 150 million Brazilians were eligible to vote Sunday, at a time when the country is experiencing record wildfires and a historic drought -- though the environment was largely absent from the debates.

Following a campaign that saw three councillor candidates murdered in recent weeks, more than 23,000 soldiers were deployed in 5,500 towns for added security.

Disinformation has been at the center of the campaign in Brazil, where social media platform X has been off the air since August 31, accused of propagating false news.

Marcal, a 37-year-old ultra-conservative, gained popularity particularly among supporters of the far-right Bolsonaro with his provocative style.

During one heated debate, an exasperated rival attacked him with a chair.

Boulos, who got a boost Saturday from Lula during a Sao Paulo rally, said after voting that "this was not a normal election." He complained of "lies" and "hatred."

Mayra Goulart, a political scientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told AFP that Lula was betting personally on Boulos.

"If he is elected mayor of the largest city in the country, it will be a great victory for the president," she said.