Brazil elects 1st female leader
Source: Agencies |
November 2, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FROM three years in a dictatorship's jail cell to just two months from the presidential palace, the journey has been long for Brazil's newly elected leader Dilma Rousseff - the first woman to lead Latin America's biggest nation.
She is a career civil servant who has never held elected office, but Rousseff easily won Sunday's presidential runoff election.
That was thanks to the wholehearted backing of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who for decades has been a presence on Brazil's political scene and will leave office as its most popular leader.
Now, the difficult part begins. Rousseff must make good on her campaign promises to continue Silva's programs that have led Brazil to new international economic and political heights.
She acknowledged the challenge in her victory speech late Sunday after overcoming centrist rival Jose Serra by winning 56 percent of the vote against his 44 percent.
"It's a challenging and difficult task to succeed him, but I will know how to honor his legacy," she said of Silva. "I will know how to advance and consolidate his work."
"Now we are certain that the country will continue in the right direction," 26-year-old teacher Hobert dos Santos said while waving Rousseff campaign flags at a celebration on a main avenue in Sao Paulo.
"Dilma will be able to continue working for the people, to continue improving many of the things that Lula started and didn't have time to finish."
Rousseff, 62, will lead a nation on the rise, a country that will host the 2014 World Cup and that is expected to be the globe's fifth-largest economy by the time it hosts the 2016 summer Olympics.
She is a career civil servant who has never held elected office, but Rousseff easily won Sunday's presidential runoff election.
That was thanks to the wholehearted backing of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who for decades has been a presence on Brazil's political scene and will leave office as its most popular leader.
Now, the difficult part begins. Rousseff must make good on her campaign promises to continue Silva's programs that have led Brazil to new international economic and political heights.
She acknowledged the challenge in her victory speech late Sunday after overcoming centrist rival Jose Serra by winning 56 percent of the vote against his 44 percent.
"It's a challenging and difficult task to succeed him, but I will know how to honor his legacy," she said of Silva. "I will know how to advance and consolidate his work."
"Now we are certain that the country will continue in the right direction," 26-year-old teacher Hobert dos Santos said while waving Rousseff campaign flags at a celebration on a main avenue in Sao Paulo.
"Dilma will be able to continue working for the people, to continue improving many of the things that Lula started and didn't have time to finish."
Rousseff, 62, will lead a nation on the rise, a country that will host the 2014 World Cup and that is expected to be the globe's fifth-largest economy by the time it hosts the 2016 summer Olympics.
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