Brazil votes in tight presidential run-off

• Dilma Rousseff is the narrow favourite heading into the vote
• Vote is seen as a referendum on her 12-year rule

Rio De Janeiro: After a dramatic, hard-fought race, Brazilians elect their next president on Sunday, weighing 12 years of social progress against a yearning for economic revival, and for change.

Leftist incumbent Dilma Rousseff is the narrow favourite heading into the vote, with a four- to six-point advantage over center-right business favourite Aecio Neves in the race to lead the world's seventh-largest economy, final surveys showed.

Datafolha gave Rousseff a 52-48 per cent lead, just on the two-percentage-point margin for error, while indicating it saw a "probability" of her winning the contest. An Ibope Institute poll for its part showed Rousseff ahead by 53-47 per cent, breaking the technical tie.

Winning back front-runner status has been a battle for Brazil's first woman president -- a former guerrilla once jailed and tortured for fighting the country's 1964-1985 military regime. The vote is widely seen as a referendum on 12 years of government by her Workers' Party (PT) -- eight under working-class hero Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and four under Rousseff, his seemingly less-charmed successor. The party endeared itself to the masses with landmark social programs that have lifted millions from poverty, increased wages and brought unemployment to a record-low 4.9 per cent. But after Brazil benefited from an economic boom during the Lula years, the outlook has darkened since Rousseff won the 2010 election, the year economic growth peaked at 7.5 per cent.Rousseff, 66, has presided over rising inflation and a recession this year.