Alexandre Kalil, from PSD, is re-elected mayor of Belo Horizonte |...

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Bruno Engler (PRTB) came in second with 9.95% (122,913 votes).

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The election in Belo Horizonte had 28.34% abstention, 4.25% white votes and 6.87% null votes. In 2016, according to the TSE, abstention in the capital of Minas Gerais was 21.66%.

Kalil after voting this Sunday. – Photo: Gledston Tavares / Framephoto / Estadão Content

Alexandre Kalil is 61 years old, married, businessman and has incomplete higher education. He has a declared equity of R $ 3,689,634.19 and has been president of Atlético-MG. The runner-up is Fuad Noman, of the PSD, 73 years old.

Both are part of the “Courage and Labor” coalition, formed by the MDB, DC, PP, PV, REDE, AVANTE, PSD and PDT parties.

Kalil voted for the Central State, in the Lourdes neighborhood, in the Center-South region of the capital, this morning.

“This city is not a game, we have to do a lot. So, God help us,” he told reporters. Then he went home, where he followed the result of the count.

Alexandre Kalil waits in line to vote at Governador Milton Campos State School – Photo: Carlos Eduardo Alvim / TV Globo

Since the start of the elections, the candidate has led all the polls. In the last one, released by Ibope this Saturday (14th), he appeared with 72% of the valid votes. João Vitor Xavier was in second place, with 9%.

In the 2016 elections, Kalil ran for political office for the first time. He was elected mayor of Belo Horizonte with 52.98% of the votes, defeating João Leite (PSDB), who got 47.02%. Before, he had been a pre-candidate for state deputy, in 2014, when he gave up the election.

“No more drumsticks, no more bologna, the chat is now kibbeh,” said Kalil after the result of the first election, referring to his Syrian-Lebanese ancestry.

In the 2017-2020 term, he faced two major challenges: the rainy periods and the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2018, Kalil acknowledged that there were errors in the project presented to end the flooding on Avenida Vilarinho, which gives access to the North and Venda Nova regions.

In 2019, when Cristina Pereira Matos, 40, and her daughter, Sofia Pereira, 6, died on this avenue during a thunderstorm, Kalil said it was his responsibility. “The mayor is guilty of two deaths and one missing person. You don’t know how it hurts in the mayor’s heart, ”he said at the time.

In 2020, Belo Horizonte had the rainiest January in history. Throughout the month, several storms punished the city, causing 13 deaths, floods, landslides and destruction of streets and avenues.

Mayor Alexandre Kalil announces works in Vilarinho once again – Photo: Reproduction / TV Globo

Three times over the past two years, Kalil announced flood containment works on Avenida Vilarinho. Last Friday (13), the stretch flooded again, dragging cars and leaving people stranded.

Avenida Vilarinho, in Belo Horizonte, is flooded again in a storm on November 13, 2020. – Photo: CBMMG / Disclosure

This year, the world is facing the coronavirus pandemic. Belo Horizonte was one of the first capitals in Brazil to close trade, in March this year, and allow only essential services to function.

Flexibility was conducted in stages, taking into account different epidemiological markers. Many traders did not like the measures taken by the mayor and several demonstrations were held throughout the pandemic.

Protesters call for reopening of commerce in BH in protest at Praça da Liberdade. – Photo: Ricardo Soares / TV Globo

“God spared me from fear,” said Kalil, in July, when defending social isolation measures in BH.

The city did not adhere to the Minas Consciente program of the state government and this generated an impasse in the courts in August.

Belo Horizonte has passed 50 thousand patients infected by Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest epidemiological bulletin released by the city. In all, 1,551 people died of the disease in the capital.