Brazil reelects president Rousseff to second term

Brazils President Dilma Rousseff was reelected to a second term Sunday, official results showed. Rousseff garnered 51.62 percent of the votes, while conservative opposition candidate Aecio Neves of the Social Democratic party (PSDB) got 48.38 percent, with 99.77 percent of the votes counted, the countrys Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) said. Rousseff, 66, won what was considered as Brazils most bitterly contested presidential race in two decades, as an economic slowdown gave the pro-business PSDB an opportunity to make headway in its campaign. Acknowledging the economic troubles, Rousseffs campaign promised a new cycle of development (that will be) more productive and more competitive for Latin Americas biggest economy. Her win means another four years in power for the Workers Party, which has held power for 12 years and leveraged an economic growth to expand social welfare programs and lift more than 40 million people from poverty in Latin Americas most populous country. In 2002, her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated the PSDBs Jose Serra to win his first term, and in 2006 he beat the partys Geraldo Alckmin, current governor of Sao Paulo state, to win his second term.

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Brazil reelects president Rousseff to second term