Plínio Comte Leite Bittencourt (born 2 March 1957) is a Brazilian politician. He is affiliated with Cidadania, of which he is the current president.[1] He served as a councilman and as vice-mayor of the city of Niterói. He later became the Secretary of Education for the state of Rio de Janeiro from 2020 to 2021. He was a vice-gubernatorial candidate for the 2018 Rio de Janeiro gubernatorial election, with Eduardo Paes as the gubernatorial candidate, losing to Wilson Witzel and Cláudio Castro.
Biography
During his time as a state deputy, Bittencourt presided over the Education Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro.[2] He is the state president of Cidadania in Rio de Janeiro.[3] He was vice-mayor of Niterói during the mayoralty of Godofredo Pinto [pt] of the Workers' Party (PT).[4] He was elected again as a state deputy in 2014 with 36,155 votes.[5]
He was selected as vice-mayoral candidate, with Rodrigo Neves as mayor, due to the barring of provisional vice-mayor candidate Axel Grael by the regional Elections' Court. They were elected to their respective offices, with Neves being reelected as mayor. Due to his belief of the city needing a strong representative at the state legislative assembly in order to better address crises at the state level, he resigned from being vice-mayor in order to return being a state deputy.[6][7] He continued to hold that position until 2019.
On 5 August 2018, in an announcement made during a conference at the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, with representatives from both Cidadania (then called the PPS) and the Democratas,[8] Bittencourt announced he was running to be vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro, with Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes as the gubernatorial candidate.[9] Cidadania later confirmed their support for the ticket, which would go on to reach second place, losing to the ticket led by Witzel and Castro.[10]
Bittencourt served as the State Secretary of Education after Pedro Fernandes Neto was dismissed from the position. Bittencourt's official nomination occurred on 25 September 2020,[11] invited by then-interim governor Cláudio Castro (PSC).[12][13] He assumed the position during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which discussions of school students returning to classes in-person was high in the public consciousness.[14] He left the position in less than a year, being replaced by Alexandre Valle [pt] in 2021.[15]
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