imageBRASoLIA: Brazil's newly re-elected President Dilma Rousseff faces huge challenges to govern the sprawling South American country after winning a deeply divisive race by a narrow margin, analysts said.

The leftist incumbent beat business favorite Aecio Neves 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent in a hard-fought run-off Sunday, leaving her with a fragile mandate to reboot the recession-hit economy and answer voters' frustrations over corruption and weak public services.

Political analyst Andre Cesar summed up the laundry list of problems facing Rousseff as she starts her next four years in power.

"The economy, whose growth will be close to zero this year, is in bad shape. In Congress the president has a volatile majority and faces a fragmented legislature with 28 political parties. There are serious accusations of corruption at state oil firm Petrobras, and the country is divided after an extremely polarizing election campaign," he told AFP.

The scenario has changed dramatically since 2010, when Rousseff first won election, taking over from her Workers' Party (PT) mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2014

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