Brazil's emergent evangelical Christian right has surged to unprecedented victories in the latest round of elections.
Marcello Crivella, a founder of the conservative Brazilian Republican Party (PRB) and a bishop in the the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, has won office as Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
Crivella is nephew of Edir Macedo, the bishop who heads Crivella's church, who preaches the "prosperity gospel" and is in his own right one of the world's wealthiest men.
He won on his pledge to take tough steps against resurgent crime in post-Olympics Rio, and to strive for justice for the poor in areas such as health and education.
He has run before without success but these municipal elections are witness to a growing public mood in Brazil that is sickened by corruption and is shifting significantly to the right.
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Speaking in Bangu Athletic Club, in western Rio, Crivella said he now wanted to look to the future. "We can not fall into the trap of bloody revenge," he said. "We will concentrate all our energies to the project we have proposed, which is to take care of people."
Crivella, aged 59, who is a bishop in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, won a convincing victory by nearly 20 points, France24 reported, affirming the shift away from the impeached former president Dilma Rousseff's Workers' Party which marked up many more losses in the first round of elections earlier this month.
Crivella has a controversial past himself.
In a book in 1999 he said Roman Catholics are "demonic" and that Hindus drank their children's blood.
He has also condemned homosexuality as evil.
He succeeded however in distancing himself from these comments, arguing that as Mayor he will govern for the people, not for his church.
The capital's gay community backed his rival, Marcello Freixo, 49, a former teacher, of the Socialism and Freedom Party.
Evangelical candidates and pastors benefited from a recent ban on companies funding election campaigns in Brazil.
Individuals are still allowed to make personal donations to election campaigns, meaning influential pastors could direct their congregations, who often number many thousands, to donate to invididual politicians.
The centre right party of Brazil's current president Michael Temer, 75, a Catholic, has benefited in particular from the shift to the right.
The Washington Post reported earlier this year: "Just as the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority emerged as a force in the United States in the 1980s, Brazilian evangelical leaders have gone from the political sidelines to the center. Their movement is not a coordinated effort to take power, they insist, but a grass-roots backlash against secularism, homosexuality and changes introduced during 13 years of Marxist-inspired Workers' Party rule."
Additional reporting by Reuters.
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