The Goiânia mayoral election of 2012 was held on 7 October as part of the municipal elections in Brazil. Then incumbent mayor, Paulo Garcia, elected as the running mate of Iris Rezende in the previous election, ran against seven other candidates and was re-elected with more than 57% of the valid votes. On the same date, voters also chose their 35 representatives for the Municipal Chamber (Câmara Municipal). The elected mayor, deputy-mayor and aldermen will serve from 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2016, when their terms will officially expire.
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Although he faced seven contestants, Garcia found no major problems in being re-elected in the first round. He took advantage from the outcome of the Monte Carlo Operation, led by the Federal Police (Polícia Federal – PF) on early 2012. Until then, the candidate backed by Governor Marconi Perillo, then-Senator Demóstenes Torres, was the favorite in the opinion polls. PF's investigations, however, revealed that Perillo was an accessary to mobster Carlinhos Cachoeira and that Torres lobbied on his behalf at the Senate. Allegations of corruption undermined the intention of Perillo's Brazilian Social Democracy Party (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira – PSDB) to launch Congressman Leonardo Vilela, also associated with Cachoeira, or to support Torres, which was later impeached for his affiliation with the offender. Therefore, Perillo decided to support Congressman Jovair Arantes, that was hampered by the unpopularity of the latter.