Far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil presidential election

Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right politician who has garnered comparisons to President Donald Trump, has won Brazil's presidential election, marking a dramatic shift to the right in the country's political landscape. 

Bolsonaro, a member of the Social Liberal Party, won 55.2% of the votes in a run-off election against left-wing challenger and former Mayor of São Paulo Fernando Haddad of the Worker's Party (PT), according to the country's electoral authority. 

The 63-year old former army captain has been criticized for his misogynistic, homophobic, and militaristic views, but has amassed large numbers of supporters for his outspoken rhetoric, promising to crack down on violent crime.

His rise has been propelled by a rejection of the leftist Worker's Party that has governed Brazil for over a decade. "We cannot continue flirting with socialism, communism, populism and leftist extremism ... We are going to change the destiny of Brazil," he said in his acceptance speech. 

Bolsonaro's victory constitutes a markedly right-wards swing in the largest democracy in Latin America, which was governed by the left-wing Workers' Party for 13 years between 2003 and 2016. 

For the past two years, the country has been led by a conservative, Michel Temer, following the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. But Temer has proven deeply unpopular with Brazilians. With the outgoing president's approval rating at a record low of 2%, voters clamoured for change but they were deeply divided on which way that change should go. 

Bolsonaro's convincing 10-percentage-point victory means the vision he laid out to voters of a Brazil where law and order and family values would be made the priority won out. 

Haddad won in the north-east of Brazil, the heartland of the Workers' Party and the stronghold of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom Haddad replaced on the Workers' Party ticket after Lula was barred from running due to his corruption conviction. But Bolsonaro won in all other parts of the country, and in some of them by a very large majority, ultimately giving him a sweeping overall victory.

Bolsonaro has said his government would be a "defender of democracy and the constitution... This is not the promise of a party, nor the word of a man. It is an oath before God."

Critics of Bolsonaro are worried that the former army captain, who has expressed nostalgia for the years Brazil was under military rule, may curtail citizens' freedoms and undermine Brazil's constitution. They are also worried about the rights of minorities following homophobic, racist and misogynistic remarks Bolsonaro made during the campaign and before.