Martha’s Vineyard Brazilians who joined more than a hundred million of their countrymates casting votes in a closely watched presidential runoff election Sunday said this week that they were pleased with the outcome. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, a controversial candidate from a minority right wing party, won decisively, making headlines around the world.

“I’m so, so excited. The world is so excited,” said Meiroka Nunes, who is from the city of Mantena in the state of Minas Gerais. She moved to the Island 16 years ago and worked for the Brazilian consulate during both rounds of presidential elections this year. “My family is there in Brazil, and we wish for a better life for everybody like I have here,” she said.

Island Brazilians who participated in the election traveled to a consular polling station set up in Hyannis to vote. Ms. Nunes was one of them. She is the manager of a Vineyard Brazilian Facebook group with more than 8,500 members, a forum that was full of pro-Bolsonaro posts as election results came in.

“He is the man everybody needs now because he was a sergeant in the army in Brazil before. Sometimes he speaks a little like Trump, a little rude, but right now I understand that Brazil needs someone really strong,” Ms. Nunes said.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters hope that his victory will mark the end of widespread violence and corruption in the country, while opponents are concerned about his authoritarian leanings and the possible consequences for human rights.

“For his constituents, Jair Bolsonaro is the figure of the man who will restore the dignity of the nation, even though he has shown prejudice against minorities and [spoken in favor] of torture and military dictatorship,” Framingham journalist Jehozadak Pereira said in an email. Mr. Pereira hosts a radio show and is editor and writer of a news blog, Mündo Yes, about Brazilians living in the United States.

Meiroka Nunes, who is from the city of Mantena in the state of Minas Gerais, moved to the Vineyard 16 years ago.

Meiroka Nunes, who is from the city of Mantena in the state of Minas Gerais, moved to the Vineyard 16 years ago.

In the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Consulate General in Boston, Mr. Bolsonaro won by a landslide. More than 80 per cent of Brazilians voting in Boston, Framingham, Hyannis, Stoughton, and Nashua, N.H. favored Bolsonaro over the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad, according to data Mr. Pereira compiled. According to his data, a total of 14,186 people voted in the five towns, including about 629 in Hyannis. It is not known how many Brazilians from the Island voted.

“It is unbelievable, off the charts in this area,” said Boston University professor of political science and Latin American studies Dr. Taylor Boas, speaking of the election outcome in Boston. Mr. Boas, who specializes in electoral politics in Latin America and has studied Brazil most extensively, said this election seems like more than a typical swing to the right.

“It’s normal to have a fluctuation in power, but I think what’s happened here is this is probably the most authoritarian president who has ever won an election in Latin America,” he said.

He noted that much of the Brazilian expatriate population in the region left a struggling economy behind.

“People who leave Brazil and come here have made a decision to migrate, and in most instances, it is an economic decision . . . They’re happy with their life here compared to how it was,” the professor said. “And they’re hearing bad news about how things are back home, so the sense of contrast is heightened. They made the decision to leave to begin with, so they are more likely to be dissatisfied with status quo.”

Until the impeachment of Brazil’s last president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, the Workers’ Party had held the presidency since 2003.

Robert Ribeiro of Edgartown once supported the Worker’s Party, but said no longer. Mr. Ribeiro is from the city of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, and he said the level of corruption in the country is unprecedented.

“I think there was no other option because the other candidate, Fernando Haddad, was pretty much the same as what we have had in Brazil for the last 13 or 14 years,” he said. “In my opinion, what caused this situation is the other party, the Workers’ Party, because they messed up so much. People got really mad.”

At Bite on the Go in Vineyard Haven, cashier Dayanne Lino was cheerful as she sold coffee to regulars Tuesday morning. Ms. Lino is from the city of Uberlândia in the state of Minas Gerais. She said her husband used to be part of the PT, but recently changed parties. She said her daughter reported celebrations among Brazilian children at school on Monday.

“I feel happy. I feel like it’s hope,” she said. “It’s going to be a big change, a positive change because the PT, the last party in the government, was there a long, long time. Now, I hope there is no more corruption and a better life and better security.”

Ms. Nunes said she has spent many nights worried about family who still live in Brazil, and she said those worries informed her vote.

“The greatest fear of an immigrant [is to] receive a call at dawn that a dear one has died, was killed by the violence, and that already happened to me,” she wrote in an email. “All my family is in Brazil: mother, cousins, brothers . . .”

Mr. Robeiro, Ms. Lino and Ms. Nunes all agreed: under the circumstances, Mr. Bolsonaro is not too extreme for Brazil.

“Bolsonaro is a right-wing guy, but I don’t think he is far-right,” Mr. Robeiro said. “He just wants things to be done right, to correct things that are not working.”