Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was reelected by a whisker in a second-round head-to-head vote, after one of the closest, most aggressive campaigns in the country’s recent history.
Rousseff, whose left-wing Workers’ Party has governed Brazil since 2003, had 51.6 percent with 99 percent of votes counted. Aécio Neves, the center-right candidate for the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, came second, with 48.4 percent.
Cheers rang out and firecrackers exploded in central Rio as the results came in. The election was the top subject of discussion Sunday, with Workers’ Party activists carrying red flags and both sides setting up camps under awnings on city streets.
Rousseff’s party campaigned hard on its social policies, playing down Brazil’s stumbling economy and emphasizing social programs, which have helped to reduce poverty by 55 percent since 2003.
Rousseff’s victory came after a tough, dramatic campaign marked by sea changes in public opinion. She initially was expected to win easily, but that changed Aug. 13 when another candidate, Eduardo Campos, then polling in third place with 9 percent, was killed in a plane crash. Former environment minister Marina Silva, who came third in the 2010 election, entered the race and quickly took over the lead in opinion polls.
The Workers’ Party targeted Silva in its official election advertising, suggesting in one commercial that her proposals for an autonomous central bank would deliver Brazil to rich bankers and leave poor families hungry.
“The Workers’ Party perceived that Marina was a real threat and made a very strong campaign against her,” said Jairo Nicolau, a political scientist at the Federal University of Rio. Brazilians commonly refer to all candidates, and their president, by first names.
Photo: Associated Press
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