Rousseff reelected

Left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff was reelected on 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 per cent of the votes and center-right challenger Aecio Neves had 48.4 per cent, 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. Rousseff 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, according to AP.