Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won a second four-year term as Brazil's president, in a resounding victory over his challenger Geraldo Alckmin.
In his victory speech on 29 October, Lula, as the 61-year-old politician is known, promised that his second term would be "better than the first".
He told cheering supporters in Sao Paulo: "The foundation is in place, and now we have to get to work."
Lula has promised to boost economic growth and reduce inequality to put the country on track to reach the ranks of developed nations.
Four years ago, he became the first left-wing contender to hold the country's highest office in nearly half a century, following a landslide victory.
It was a win that marked the end of an unprecedented journey - from abject poverty to the presidency of Brazil.
Lula came to power promising major reforms to the country's political and economic system.
He vowed to eradicate hunger and create a self-confident, caring, outward-looking nation.
Analysts say that it is because of some of his government's social programmes - which benefit tens of millions of Brazilians - that Lula maintained huge popularity among the electorate.
But in the last 18 months he has had to fight hard to avoid the taint of corruption claims that have engulfed his Workers' Party (PT).
Smear allegations
The latest scandal, over alleged dirty tricks, led Lula to sack his re-election campaign chief and PT president, Ricardo Berzoini, with less than two weeks to go before the first round of voting.
Commentators say the allegations may have reawakened disillusionment sparked last year by a controversy over alleged bribes for votes in congress, which led to the resignation of the party leader, Jose Genoino, and several high-level colleagues.
Lula narrowly failed to win outright on 1 October, leading to a run-off vote.
During the ensuing campaign the president suggested to voters that his rival might scrap welfare benefits for the poor and privatise Brazil's remaining state companies.
Privatisation is generally viewed with suspicion in Brazil. Despite repeated denials by Mr Alckmin, the accusation undoubtedly cost him votes and contributed to Lula's resounding second-round victory, correspondents say.
Lost a finger
October's presidential election was the fifth that Lula had fought. But he began life in altogether more humble circumstances.
The son of a poor, illiterate peasant family, Lula worked as a peanut seller and shoe-shine boy as a child, only learning to read when he was 10 years old.
He went on to train as a metal worker and found work in an industrial city near Sao Paulo, where he lost the little finger of his left hand in an accident in the 1960s.
Lula was not initially interested in politics, but threw himself into trade union activism after his first wife died of hepatitis in 1969.
Elected leader of the 100,000-strong Metalworkers' Union in 1975, he transformed trade union activism in Brazil by turning what had mostly been government-friendly organisations into a powerful independent movement.
Road to pragmatism
In 1980 Lula brought together a combination of trade unionists, intellectuals, Trotskyites and church activists to found the Workers' Party (PT), the first major socialist party in the country's history.
Since then the PT has gradually replaced its revolutionary commitment to changing the power structure in Brazil with a more pragmatic, social democratic platform.
Before his 2002 election victory, Lula had previously lost three times, and he began to believe his party would never win power nationally without forming alliances and keeping powerful economic players on side.
So his coalition in that election included a small right-wing party, and he carefully courted business leaders both in Brazil and abroad.
The Workers' Party manifesto reflected its sometimes conflicting instincts. It remained committed to prioritising the poor, encouraging grassroots participation and defending ethical government.
Performance in power
In the four years since, Lula has pumped billions of dollars into social programmes and can reasonably claim to be reversing Brazil's historic inequalities.
By increasing the minimum wage well above inflation and broadening state help to the most impoverished with a family grant programme, the Bolsa Familia, he has helped some 44 million people and cemented his support among the poor.
However, many commentators argue that the programme fails to address the structural problems that underpin poverty, such as education.
There is also some criticism of the country's economic performance under Lula. Although Brazil has seen steady annual growth, some business leaders argue it is losing the competitive edge against international rivals.
Nonetheless, his government has quelled the initial fears of the financial markets by keeping the economy stable and achieving the budget surplus required by the International Monetary Fund.
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