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A runoff is expected to take place between Brazil's incumbent President Dilma Rousseff and her rival Aecio Neves on Oct. 26, preliminary results showed.
With 98 percent of the votes counted, according to Brazil's leading news website G1, Rousseff led with 41.35 percent of the votes, followed by Neves with 33.82 percent.
Socialist party opposition candidate Marina Silva, who had occupied the second place in pre-election polls trailed in the third place with 21.27 percent of the votes.
The contenders have yet to make formal statements. It is not known whether Silva will declare support to any candidates. Her party alliance may break now, with the parties choosing support for either Rousseff or Neves.
As Brazil's first woman president, Rousseff has forged a balanced government that promotes business and manufactural sectors, as well as social policies that have lifted thousands out of poverty.
This has garnered her government high marks and explains her wide appeal.
Meanwhile, pro-business rival Neves made an unexpected rise benefiting from Brazil's long economic slump. Just a week before the elections, Neves, who hoped to bring the Social Democracy Party back to power after 12 years in the opposition, appeared to have little chance of getting enough votes for the runoff.
As a two-term governor of Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's largest and most populous states, Neves gained credits in putting the state's finances in order and cutting down its debts.
Neves has blamed Rousseff's interventionist policies, which he said harmed an economic upturn, and he is proposing free trade and tighter government spending. Enditem
