Dilma victorious, again, in Brazil

Dilma Rousseff has won the Brazilian presidential elections receiving 51.45 percent of the vote. Aecio Neves, her rival, garnered 48.55 percent, a difference of two million votes.

Voting began at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Voters also selected federal parliament and state governors. More than 142 million Brazilians voted in the country’s presidential election, marking the end to a dramatic campaign.

Some 15,000 soldiers have been deployed in 280 cities across Brazil to provide security, down from the 30,000 troops deployed during the October 5 runoff election.

Rousseff won the first-round vote with 41.6 percent versus 33.6 percent for Neves, a difference of eight million votes. Neves was endorsed a week ago by Marina Silva, a popular environmentalist who placed third with 22 million votes.

As Brazil’s first female President, Rousseff was first elected in 2011. Born in 1947, she was raised in a middle-class household in Belo Horizonte.

In 1970 she was captured and imprisoned for three years where she was tortured for her role in the underground resistance against the Brazilian military dictatorship.

Under her first presidential term, Brazil’s economy grew by an average of more than four percent each year, transitioning more than 30 million people out of poverty.

The incumbent focused her campaign message on expanding the social programs that reduced poverty and inequality in the country during her Workers’ Party 12-year rule.

In addition, she has promised to continue to invest in infrastructure, particularly in connecting important economic zones to ports by rail. She has said that she would like to bring universal broadband Internet access to the country.

Meanwhile, the losing candidate, Aeicio Neves, had vowed to cut back on government spending, and implement austerity if elected.

Rousseff will continue with the 12 years of Workers’ Party administration for another four years.