Brazil presidential vote headed for runoff

Brazil's presidential vote is headed for a runoff. Preliminary election results from the South American country show President Dilma Rousseff in the lead. But she didn't get the majority necessary to win in the first round, CNN reported.

With more than 99% of votes counted, Rousseff had 41.56% of votes, Brazil's Supreme Electoral Court said. Aecio Neves was in second place with 33.60%. And Marina Silva was in third place with 21.30%.

Exit polls Sunday indicated there would be a runoff between Rousseff, the incumbent, and Neves, a center-right candidate. In a poll conducted by the Ibope public research firm, Rousseff won 44% of votes, Neves won 30% and Silva won 22%.

Silva, an environmentalist candidate for the Brazilian Socialist Party, had gained momentum and backing from a growing number of supporters leading up to the vote, with polls before the election placing her in second place.

She joined the race after candidate Eduardo Campos died in a plane crash and was seen as a political outsider who could combat corruption. But while she succeeded in gaining much broader support that polls had initially predicted for her party, her third-place finish puts her out of the running for the presidency.

Rousseff, 66, was once a Marxist rebel who was allegedly tortured in the early 1970s during Brazil's former dictatorship.

With her trademark pixie-short hair style and thick glasses, she became one of most Brazil's most wanted fugitives, branded by some as a "subversive Joan of Arc."