Brazilians are going to the ballot box today in a national election where President Dilma Rousseff says her top challengers, who are statistically tied in polls, threaten social gains achieved during 12 years of Workers’ Party rule. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. today and close at 5 p.m. local time. Opinion polls published yesterday show the incumbent ahead without the majority of votes required to avert a runoff in three weeks against either Senator Aecio Neves or former Environment Minister Marina Silva. Running under the slogan “More Changes, More Future,” the incumbent vows to build on her party’s achievements and preside over a new cycle of growth. While the economy slipped into recession this year for the first time since 2009, Rousseff’s campaign has hurt her opponents by saying their policies to slow inflation and stimulate gross domestic product jeopardize record-low unemployment and programs that lifted 35 million people out of poverty. “This is a dispute between keeping what was conquered and being able to make a secure change,” said Thiago de Aragao, at Brasilia-based political consulting firm Arko Advice. While Neves has gained support and Silva has lost voters in the past week, they remain in a statistical tie. Rousseff has 40 percent support for today’s vote followed by Neves with 24 percent and Silva with 22 percent, according to a Datafolha poll published yesterday that has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The leading candidate needs more votes than all others combined to win outright and avoid an Oct. 26 runoff against the runner-up. via Bloomberg