Mamdani leads dramatic NY mayoral race going into voting day

New Yorkers will pick a new mayor on Tuesday after an unpredictable race that has drawn attention from far beyond the largest city in the United States, with President Donald Trump branding frontrunner Zohran Mamdani "a communist."

Breakout Democratic Party candidate Mamdani, a naturalised Muslim American who represents Queens in the state legislature, leads former governor and sex assault-accused Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after losing his party's primary contest to Mamdani.

The Republican party candidate polling in third place is Curtis Sliwa, 71, who has a colourful past as founder of the Guardian Angels vigilante group, a prolific broadcaster and cat lover.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll conducted 23 to 27 October,  gives Mamdani 43% of the vote, followed by Cuomo on 33% and Sliwa on 14%.

The race has centred on cost of living, crime and how each candidate would handle Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from the city.

"Mamdani is an unusual political figure and really captures the spirit of the moment. This is a moment where a loud anti-Trump voice in America's biggest city is going to get news," Lincoln Mitchell, a politics professor at Columbia University, told AFP.

"Frankly, a Muslim candidate for mayor of New York is an enormous story."

Mamdani, 34, has attacked his opponents for Islamophobic rhetoric and smears, calling out both Republicans and Democrats for "anti-Muslim sentiment that has grown so endemic in our city."

NYC Board of Elections data showed 275,006 registered Democrats had cast ballots, as had 46,115 Republicans, along with 42,383 voters unaffiliated with any party in the first five days of early voting, which ends 2 November.

Mamdani's ascent has highlighted the gulf between the left and center-right of the Democratic Party.

New York's state governor Kathy Hochul, a centrist, appeared at a Mamdani rally on October 26 but was drowned out by "tax the rich" chants, an AFP correspondent saw.

Hochul has been critical of Mamdani's proposals to impose a 2% income tax on New Yorkers making more than $1 million.

Mamdani's rise

Mamdani's unlikely ascent has been fired by young New Yorkers canvassing for him, with his campaign claiming 90,000 people have volunteered.

"It really comes back to people speaking to other New Yorkers about the city that we all love," Mamdani told The Daily Show.

Teenager Abid Mahdi, a Queens native who leads canvasses for Mamdani, told AFP that "when I think of Zohran, I think of what Bernie Sanders was to many Americans in 2016 and 2020. He is my Bernie Sanders in a lot of ways."

Obama calls Mamdani, praises campaign ahead of New York mayoral election

Mamdani appeared with leftist standard-bearer Senator Bernie Sanders at a Queens rally on 26 October.

"I'm 15 right now, I'll be an adult and paying taxes at 18, right? The majority of laws will apply to me in about three years. So, why should I start caring then?" added Mahdi.

Underscoring the importance of older voters who typically turn out in greater numbers than youngsters, Mamdani attended a "paint and pour" session at an elder care home in Brooklyn Thursday.

Torrential rain at the end of the week slowed canvassing, with the three leading candidates touring TV studios in a final push to woo wavering voters.

Ahead of the vote, Sliwa appeared in a surreal conservative rap video wearing a suit and his signature red beret.

Cuomo, 67, sought Thursday to court Black and Muslim voters, campaigning in Harlem with current mayor Eric Adams, a corruption-accused Democrat who bowed out, eventually endorsing his former foe Cuomo.

There was a stir in the week when a British newspaper published what claimed to be an interview with former mayor and Mamdani backer Bill de Blasio in which he appeared to question the affordability of the Democratic socialist's spending plans.

But the article was removed after the former mayor denied speaking to the journalist.