Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff narrowly won re-election after convincing voters that her party's strong record of reducing poverty over the last 12 years was more important than a recent economic slump.
Supporters erupted into celebration in cities around the country after the election authority officially declared she had won a second four-year term.
Ms Rousseff, who had 51.45% of the vote with 98% of ballots counted, was declared the run-off winner.
Ms Rousseff's Workers' Party has held power for 12 years and leveraged an economic boom to expand social welfare programmes and lift over 40m people from poverty.
This was Brazil's most competitive presidential campaign in decades has also been the most acrimonious in recent memory.
Muito obrigada! #Dilmais4anos pic.twitter.com/LcPPKMOgHz
— Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) October 26, 2014The campaign had been dominated by attack ads and a steady drum beat of corruption allegations.
The race was a choice between two camps: those who felt they are better off after more than a decade of Workers' Party rule or those who believe Brazil is stuck in a rut.
Ms Rousseff, 66, voted early in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where she lived and rose in the state bureaucracy in the 1990s.
She has promised to deepen flagship welfare programmes and restore growth with a new economic team.
Mr Neves, 54, had promised to rein in other forms of public spending.
He also had a campaign to take a tougher stance against inflation and give the central bank more autonomy to set monetary policy.
Accompanied by his wife, Mr Neves cast his ballot in Belo Horizonte, where he served as governor of Minas Gerais state for eight years.
He left office with high approval ratings after tough spending cuts balanced the state budget.
Voting went smoothly at electronic polls across three time zones, from far-flung Amazon villages to Sao Paulo's business district.
There were some arrests for minor offences such as distributing election propaganda or illegal exit surveys at polling places.
Casting a ballot is mandatory for Brazilians between the ages of 18 and 70 and more than 140m were registered to vote.
