Dilma Rousseff
© Reuters/Edison VaraBrazil's President and Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil's leftist president Dilma Rousseff has been re-elected for another term with over 51 percent of the vote in a tight presidential run-off on Sunday.

Rousseff, who has been in power since 2011, has been re-elected for a second term, winning 51.6 percent of the vote according to the official tally. With over 99 percent of the ballots counted, her opponent, the centrist opposition leader Aecio Neves got 48.4 percent.


Rousseff secured her victory with wide support from the country's poor: some 40 million people have been lifted from the brink of poverty due to social reforms and the economic boom since 2003, when her Worker's Party came to power. "Thank you very much," Rousseff tweeted after the results were announced.


The victory speech of President Rousseff emphasizes reconciliation and consensus to move Brazil to reform, changes and dialogue.

"Among all reforms, the most important should be the political reform," said Rousseff.

Aecio Neves, on the other hand, was supported by the upper-middle class and the rich, promising to recover the economic growth, that decreased during Rousseff's first term, and to deal with high inflation.The 54-year-old economist and a career politician also promised to encourage more investment in the country: "The sure path for Brazil to really change." Neves conceded defeat to in a speech to supporters following the election.
Dilma Supporters
© Reuters/Paulo WhitakerSupporters of Brazil's President and Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff react to first results of the Brazil general elections in Porto Alegre, October 26, 2014.
Meanwhile the Supreme Electoral Court announced that 66 people were arrested for violations in the presidential and gubernatorial elections, while 293 minor election-related incidents were also reported.

Violations include publishing exit poll data before polls closed, distributing political propaganda, and busing voters to polling stations.