Brazilians vote in close run-off
October 26, 2014
Polls opened amid tight security at 8 a.m. local time (10 UTC) on Sunday. Around 143 million people are eligible to vote in the run-off, which will decide the next president of the world's seventh largest economy.
Incumbent left-wing President Dilma Rousseff of the center-left Workers' Party (PT), is seeking to win a second four-year term in power against conservative opposition candidate Aecio Neves from the center-right Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB). Neves is hoping to capitalize on growing discontent with the government over corruption and public services, which sparked mass protests against the FIFA World Cup and the upcoming Olympics in 2016.
Voting is electronic in Brazil, even in Amazon villages, and is compulsory. Polls are expected to close at 5 p.m., with results expected before Monday morning. The winner will be sworn into office on January 1, 2015, for a four-year term.
Voters at Sunday's run-off will also be choosing senators and governors.
Tight race
Most polls have shown the 66-year-old Rousseff with a 6 to 8 percent lead over Neves, though a survey by the MDA research company published on Saturday showed a gap of a little over one percentage point between the two rivals, with Rousseff slightly in the lead.
Rousseff won the first round of voting on October 5 with 41.5 percent of the votes, to Neves' 33.5 percent. Neves, 54, will be hoping to gain extra votes from the supporters of former environment minister Marina Silva, who got 21.3 percent and failed to make the run-off. Silva has publicly backed Neves in the run-off.
Neves, a former state governor, has a strong support base among upper-middle class and wealthy Brazilians. He campaigned on a pro-business platform and pledged, if elected, to revive the country's economy, which has stagnated since Rousseff took office in 2011.
"Regardless who wins, the economic model in Brazil is exhausted and needs real change to grow again," said Luis Otavio Leal, an economist at Banco ABC Brasil in Sao Paulo.
Rousseff, for her part, has promised to seek to boost growth with a new economic team, and to extend flagship welfare programs that have helped alleviate poverty for millions.
Corruption scandal
The two candidates held a final television debate on Friday evening in which they tried to win over some 10 percent of voters who are undecided.
Rousseff's election campaign has been overshadowed by a bribery scandal at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, with the weekly magazine "Veja" on Friday quoting an imprisoned black market money dealer as saying that Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva knew about a corruption scheme within the company.
Rousseff, who came to power in January 2011, has denied the accusations, saying in Friday's TV debate that she would take legal action against the magazine.
nm/mg (AFP, Reuters, dpa)