Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff narrowly wins second term

RIO DE JANEIRO – Left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected Sunday in the tightest race Brazil has seen since its return to democracy three decades ago, giving the juggernaut Workers’ Party its fourth-straight presidential victory and the chance to extend its social transformation of the globe’s fifth-largest country.

Rousseff took 51.6 percent of the votes and center-right challenger Aecio Neves had 48.4 percent, with almost all ballots counted. The result reflected a nation deeply divided after what many called the most acrimonious campaign since the return to democracy, with charges of corruption, nepotism and ample personal barbs thrown by both sides.

The re-elected leader faces an immense challenge of reigniting a stalled economy, improving woeful public services that ignited huge anti-government protests last year and trying to push political reforms through a highly fragmented congress where the governing coalition has less support than it did four years ago.

Speaking in front of a banner that read “New Government, New Ideas” and a giant photo of Rousseff from her days as a militant who fought against Brazil’s long military regime, she thanked her supporters, starting with her political mentor and predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who picked her to take his place in 2010.

She “thanks from the bottom of my heart, our No. 1 militant, President Lula,” as the former leader used a handkerchief to wipe tears from his eyes.

The choice between Rousseff and Neves split Brazilians into two camps — those who thought only the president would continue to protect the poor and advance social inclusion versus those who were certain that only the contender’s market-friendly economic policies could see Brazil return to solid growth.