CRI听力:Brazil Steps up Security ahead of Presidential Runoff

Brazilian military and police have tightened security across the country ahead of Sunday's run-off vote between President Dilma Rousseff and her centre-right rival Aecio Neves.

On Friday, thousands of soldiers began deployment to favelas in Rio de Janeiro and several other states.

The troops are to provide logistical help, as well as ensuring law and order.

They will be concentrated mostly in remote areas of the country's less developed northern and western states.

Claudio Pereira is a spokesperson for the Brazilian military police.

"This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we will have 35-thousand military police officers working for the election, guarding the ballot boxes, taking care of all the voting areas, 5,418 voting centres."

More than 140 million Brazilian voters are expected to vote in what many observers consider the most divisive presidential race in decades.

The latest polls give left-leaning incumbent Rousseff a slight edge in the race to lead the world's fifth-largest nation.

Rousseff's Workers' Party has governed Brazil for the past 12 years.

Centre-right challenger Neves is the presidential candidate of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, PSDB.