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Voting winds down in Brazil

October 5, 2014

Soon after polls close in Brazil's westernmost time zone, preliminary results are expected in the country. Late polls said that incumbent Dilma Rousseff was likely to win the most votes, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

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Brasilien Wahlen 5.10.2014
Image: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

President Dilma Rousseff cast her ballot in her Workers' Party's signature red on Sunday, shortly after the polls opened in her former home Porto Alegre. The incumbent was voting in what promised to be Brazil's most hotly contested presidential election in decades.

"I expect two rounds of voting," Rousseff told reporters, before saying that she would not be drawn on who she considered the more likely runoff opponent. "It is up to the people to decide, it's not up to me to opt for one candidate or the other. That would be disrespectful, particularly today."

Brasilien Wahlen 5.10.2014 Rousseff
The 64-year-old incumbent may face a closer fight in the runoff than the first roundImage: picture-alliance/AP/Felipe Dana

Rousseff was polling between 41 and 46 percent just ahead of the vote, seemingly too far adrift of the majority-winning margin. Prominent conservationist Marina Silva of the Brazilian Socialist Party, polling between 21 and 24 percent, and pro-business social democrat Aecio Neves (24-27 percent) appeared to be Rousseff's main challengers.

Marina Silva, a former environment minister and defector from the ruling party of the past 12 years, cast her vote in her native city Rio Branco, in the Amazonian northern state of Acre. Silva would not be drawn on a possible alliance with Neves ahead of a runoff, with analysts predicting that Rousseff could face a much closer race in a second-round vote.

"It will be a program-based debate, not pragmatic talks," Silva said, before traveling to Sao Paulo to await the results with her campaign team.

Brasilien Wahlen 5.10.2014 Marina Silva
Silva's ratings spiked in the weeks before voting, but appeared to slip on election weekendImage: Reuters/Sergio Moraes

Neves confident of turnaround

Senator Neves, whose pro-business Social Democrats are often credited for laying the groundwork for Brazil's economic boom under the Worker's Party, submitted his vote in Belo Horizonte. For weeks, Neves was polling behind Silva, but he said his return to second spot in last-minute polls on Saturday did not surprise him.

"It happened naturally. It wasn't a surprise. I'm relaxed. We'll wait and see in the result," Neves told reporters.

Silva's popularity had risen markedly in the weeks after she took over the Socialist Party campaign from Eduardo Campos, the original candidate who died in a plane crash in August. She was formerly Campos' running mate. Voters will also elect governors, members of congress and state legislators in Sunday's poll.

Due to an electronic voting system, the count is expected to be complete within hours of the election's end. Around 143 million people had registered to vote. The polls in the far west of the country, which spans four time zones, will close at 5 p.m. local time (2200 UTC).

msh/dr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)