Brazil's left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff 
was re-elected Sunday in the tightest race the nation 
has seen since its return to democracy three decades 
ago, after a bitter campaign that divided Brazilians
 like no other before it.

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Rousseff had 
51.5 percent of the ballots, topping center-right 
challenger Aecio Neves with 48.5 percent.

Rousseff's victory extends the rule of the Workers'
 Party, which has held the presidency since 2003. 
During that time, they've enacted expansive social
 programs that have helped pull millions of Brazilians 
out of poverty and into the middle class

The choice between Rousseff and Neves split 
Brazilians into two camps — those who thought only
the president would continue to protect the poor and
 advance social inclusion versus those who were 
certain that only the contender's market-friendly
 economic policies could see Brazil return to solid growth.

The Workers' Party's time in power has seen a profound transformation in Brazil. But four straight years of weak
 economic growth under Rousseff, with an economy
 that's now in a technical recession, has some worried
those gains are under threat.

"Brazilians want it all. They are worried about the
 economy being sluggish and stagnant but they want
 to preserve social gains that have been made," said 
Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based
 Inter-American Dialogue. "The question is which 
candidate is best equipped to deliver both of those."

Rousseff and Neves have fought bitterly to convince 
voters that they can deliver on both growth and social 
advances. This year's campaign is widely considered 
the most acrimonious since Brazil's return to democracy
 in 1985, a battle between the only two parties to have 
held the presidency since 1995.

Neves has hammered at Rousseff over a widening 
kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras,
 with an informant telling investigators that the Workers'
 Party directly benefited from the scheme.

Rousseff rejected those allegations and told Brazilians 
that a vote for Neves would be support for returning
 Brazil to times of intense economic turbulence,
 hyperinflation and high unemployment, which the nation encountered when the Social Democrats last held power.

"We've worked so hard to better the lives of the people, and we won't let anything in this world, not even in this crisis nor all the pessimism, take away what they've conquered," Rousseff said before voting in southern Brazil.

In Rio de Janeiro, 43-year-old lifeguard Marcelo Barbosa dos Santos voted in the Botafogo neighborhood and said he's been a Rousseff backer from the beginning.

"Many things changed for the better during Dilma's
 administration," he said. "The poor have seen our
 lives improved and we want that to continue."

But Paula Canongia, a 34-year-old hotel owner, said
 she voted for Neves because of "the current state of 
our country."

"He's not an ideal candidate, far from it ... but we
 desperately need change and hopefully he can 
provide that," she said.

Officials from Brazil's top electoral court said voting
 went smoothly through late afternoon. However, 
there was a shooting at a polling location in the
 northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, when
 a man was shot and killed inside a school where
 ballots were cast. Police said it appeared to be gang-related.