Brazilian politics turn right

An evangelical minister has been elected mayor of the Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro.

Elsewhere in the country, the municipal election results saw the rise of other rightwing candidates.

Marcelo Crivella, a bishop in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God which was founded by his uncle and a member of the small Brazilian Republican party, won comfortably with 59.4%.

After dominating national politics for more than a decade, the leftwing Workers’ Party took a hammering in the elections which came not long after the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff and the subsequent summons to stand trial on corruption charges for former president Lula da Silva.

Brazil has been in the grip of a severe recession and the national mood has not been lifted by the revelations of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigations into bribery and kickbacks at the state-run oil firm Petrobras.

Dozens of politicians of all persuasions have been implicated in the scandal, but analysts say that the Workers’ Party was hit the hardest by voter disaffection. A record number of spoiled and blank ballots were reported and voter numbers were down despite a legal obligation to vote.

The popularity of evangelical churches has been increasing steadily in traditionally Catholic Brazil. The last census shows that about a fifth of the population said they were adherents.

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