Brazil elects first female president

L–R: Brazilian former President, Jose Samey; President-elect, Dilma Rousseff; and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, during the celebration of Rousseff, as first female president of Brazil, at Alvorada Palace, on Sunday.

As anticipated, Brazil’s ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff beat her rival, a former Sao Paulo state governor, in Sunday’s second round of the presidential election to become the first woman ever to lead Latin American’s most powerful economy, France24 reports.

Rousseff, who has promised to continue the economic policies of her predecessor, President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, picked up almost 56 percent of the vote.

Sunday’s presidential contest pit Rousseff of the Workers‘ Party (PT) against Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). Serra, a career politician, lost the 2002 presidential run-off against Lula.

Rousseff’s victory was largely owed to the endorsement of the popular outgoing president, who hand-picked Rousseff, 62, to succeed him, and is leaving the presidency in January with an approval rating above 80 percent.

Some 135 million people were eligible to vote, which is compulsory in Brazil. Among them, 15 million voters also cast ballots in run-off elections for governor in eight states and the federal district of Brasilia.

The election was the fifth democratic presidential poll since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.

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