As part of drought relief, Ceara has enrolled 200, 000 people in literacy classes and school-repair work.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

Before that, as governor of the north-eastern state of Ceara, he ran a prudent and efficient administration.

ECONOMIST: Brazil's election

Bahia and Ceara, governed for more than a decade by allies of Mr Cardoso, are often held up as models of the new, modern north-east.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

Mr Jereissati admitted that his chances may have been dented after Patricia Gomes, his candidate for mayor of Fortaleza, Ceara's capital, was beaten into fourth place.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

That would allow Mr Cardoso to whip up public indignation against pampered pen-pushers, argues Tasso Jereissati, the governor of Ceara state and a close ally of Mr Cardoso.

ECONOMIST: Cardoso��s reform puzzle

And in the north-eastern city of Fortaleza, defeat for Patricia Gomes, a soft-left challenger, could hurt two potential presidential candidacies, those of Ciro Gomes, her ex-husband and campaign adviser, and of Tasso Jereissati, the governor of Ceara.

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Both must scrap for the votes of two slippery populist candidates, Anthony Garotinho, until recently the governor of Rio de Janeiro, who got 18%, and Ciro Gomes, a former governor of the north-eastern state of Ceara, who got 12%.

ECONOMIST: Brazil's presidential election