Brazil's Election Results in 2nd Round Indicate Shift to Right

A controversial right-wing evangelical bishop was elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro Sunday, defeating Marcelo Freixo, who was representing the Socialism and Liberty Party in the second round of regional elections in the country.

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Freixo's campaign garnered energetic support from celebrities, artists, intellectuals and Rio leftists, and it is likely his name will be heard again in Brazilian politics.

Marcelo Crivella, a controversial conservative who is a senator, bishop and nephew of the founder of an evangelical megachurch, successfully weathered an uproar over past criticism of homosexuality and Catholicism – the dominant religion in Latin America's largest country – by distancing himself from those comments and vowing to govern for Rio's residents, not the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the influential congregation from which he hails.

In a victory speech to supporters in a working-class Rio neighborhood, he promised to "take care of people," echoing campaign vows to improve deficient public services, from health to transport to sanitation.

Crivella's victory, partly fueled by the growing influence of evangelical voters, fortifies a rightward shift in Brazil following the 13-year rule of the leftist Workers' Party.

But the elections – which toppled many incumbents in the first round of voting earlier this month – are also a broader renunciation of voter frustration with two consecutive years of recession and the giant kickback scandal that has led to the arrest of dozens of political and corporate leaders.

The persistent attacks on the Workers' Party – including the ouster of former President Dilma Rousseff in what was deemed a parliamentary coup – and continued attacks on former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have also had an impact on the electorate.

The Communist Party of Brazil won in Aracaju, the capital of the state of Sergipe in the country's northwest. Clecio Vieira of the Sustainability Network also won in Macapa, also in the country's northwest.

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Elsewhere in Brazil, right-wing parties won in cities such as Porto Alegre, traditionally a bastion of progressive parties.

In the first round of voting, two-term Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes failed to secure a place in the runoff for his successor candidate.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city and the cradle of the Workers Party, voters ousted Mayor Fernando Haddad, once considered one of the party's rising stars. The Workers Party held onto only one of the state capitals it had previously occupied.

In a reflection of the lack of diversity in Brazilian politics, all the mayors elected in the second round in the state of Sao Paulo were men.

In Belo Horizonte, capital of the rich southeastern state of Minas Gerais, a loss by a candidate from the right-wing Brazilian Social Democratic Party is expected to help resolve an ongoing power struggle within the PSDB, as the party is known.

The loss in Belo Horizonte to a smaller centrist party is considered a defeat for Aecio Neves, a PSDB leader who was the party's candidate against Rousseff in 2014. Neves, a senator and former governor of Minas Gerais, failed to win the state in that election and gave his imprimatur to this year's losing mayoral candidate.

The PSDB, which had been the chief opposition to the Workers Party and the main force behind the ouster of Rousseff, won São Paulo and other important cities in the first round of municipal elections.

The victory by wealthy businessman João Doria in São Paulo fortified Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of that state and a possible presidential candidate, who pushed for Doria despite opposition from other PSDB leaders.