Elmano de Freitas (PT) and Ciro Gomes (PSDB), candidates for the government of Ceará in 2026. — Photo: Kid Junior/SVM
The first round of elections ended with Elmano de Freitas (PT) re-elected in Cerá. The PT member, current governor, won in 151 municipalities — which represents 82.07% of the cities. Ciro Gomes (PSDB), who came in second place, received the most votes in 33 municipalities in Ceará, including four of the five largest electoral colleges in the state.
Elmano was re-elected with 53.19% of the valid votes, totaling 2,875,573; while Ciro had 46.22%, with 2,498,891 votes.
Ciro stood out mainly in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, where he received the most votes in 11 of the 19 municipalities; and in the northern region of the state, where Sobral is located, the municipality where the toucan was born.
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Ciro X Elmano: See voting in the five largest electoral colleges in Ceará in 2026.
Municipality Ciro Elmano Number of eligible voters Fortaleza 52.91% 46.04% 1,765,795 Caucaia 50.54% 48.60% 247,758 Juazeiro do Norte 42.32% 56.80% 213,524 Maracanaú 53.35% 45.80% 182,149 Sobral 70.09% 28.43% 153,834
Elmano was victorious in the other regions of the state, with emphasis on Sertão Central and Cariri (where Juazeiro do Norte is located, the only one of the five largest electoral colleges that the PT member won).
Check out how the Ceará map looked in the Ciro x Elmano dispute:
Voting for governor of Ceará: see results by municipality. — Photo: Infographic G1
Opposite winners
Ceará elected PT governor and had PL deputies among the most voted — Photo: Reproduction
Ciro and Elmano were the strongest candidates for the government of Ceará in 2026, leading all voting intention polls and intensifying differences between political alliances in the state.
On the one hand, Elmano was trying for a new mandate with the support of leaders such as President Lula, Minister Camilo Santana and the mayor of Fortaleza, Evandro Leitão, — all from the PT — and the elected senators Cid Gomes (PSB) and Luizianne Lins (Rede).
On the other, Ciro was supported by leaders opposed to Elmano and Lula, such as André Fernandes (PL), the most voted federal deputy in the history of Ceará. Ciro also had, nationally, the support of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and, in Ceará, Captain Wagner and the former mayor of Fortaleza, Roberto Claudio — both from União Brasil.
The political division in the state was reflected at the end of the vote count: Ceará re-elected a PT candidate for the Executive, and the deputies (state and federal) with the most votes are from the PL.
Even with important defeats in the majority elections, the PL had impressive results in Ceará.
André Fernandes (PL) celebrates re-election as federal deputy — Photo: Ismael Soares / SVM
The federal deputy with the most votes was André Fernandes (PL), being re-elected to the position with 684,372 votes. With this total, André surpassed Ciro Gomes' mark and became the federal deputy with the most votes in the history of Ceará.
The PL also won three other seats for Congress in Ceará, electing federal deputies Matheus Noronha, Dr. Jaziel and Carmelo Neto. Of these, only Carmelo Neto is new as a federal deputy.
In 2022, the PL elected six federal deputies for Ceará. This time, four candidates were elected.
Tancredo dos Santos (PL) is the most voted state deputy in Ceará — Photo: Disclosure / Câmara de Caucaia
The most voted state deputy in Ceará is also from PL. Tancredo dos Santos received 151,396 votes and was elected to the position for the first time. The newcomer was one of the candidates supported by André Fernandes during the election campaign.
The party also included two other names among the five most voted for the Legislative Assembly: Bella Carmelo was the third most voted, while Abreu Júnior was the fourth with the highest number of votes.
In total, the PL has six state deputies. In addition to those who received the most votes, the following were also elected: Dr. Silvana, Mayra Pinheiro and Frota Neto.
In the 2022 elections, the party managed to elect four state deputies.
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