Brazil's Presiednt Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, candidate of the Workers' Party, won a second term in the presidential runoff with Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil's electoral court announced on Sunday.

Lula net 61 percent of the vote, mostly from poor voters, easily defeating his rival Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party.

Lula is highly popular among lower-class voters for his large-scale welfare program to cover the poor, while Alckmin, a former governor of the Sao Paulo state, is more favored among businessmen for his willingness to encourage business.

On Sunday, about 125 million Brazilians, or two-thirds of the country's population, cast their ballots in the presidential runoff.

Lula, 61, failed to clinch an outright victory over Alckmin in the Oct. 1 presidential election, during which the incumbent president got 48.6 percent of the votes against Alckmin's 41.6 percent.

The next government will face a fractured parliament, with the Lula's party holding 83 of the 513 seats in the lower house and 11 in the 81-seat Senate, Alckmin's PSDB having 66 and 14 respectively, and the remaining seats going to other parties.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)