Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff, presidential candidate for Brazil's ruling Workers Party (PT), was elected Brazil's 40th president after Sunday's runoff votes.

With 76.89 percent of votes already counted, the PT candidate won so far 53.56 percent of valid votes and has 41.2 million votes, according to Datafolha Institute.

Rousseff was born in Dec. 1947 in the state of Minas Gerais to a middle class family consisting of a Bulgarian immigrant and a Brazilian.

Her career is marked by activities against the 1964-1985 military dictatorship and work in the public service since the re- democratization.

In her youth, she participated in the armed resistance known as Colina (an acronym for Command of National Liberation) and VAR- Palmares (Armed Revolutionary Vanguard), fighting against the de facto regime.

She was imprisoned, tortured and spent three years in prison in the early 1970s.

In late years of the military regime, Rousseff fought for amnesty for citizens who had lost their civil rights and were persecuted by the government, and took part in the founding of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) in Brazil's southern region.

After studying economics, she became in late 1980s secretary of mines and energy of the government of Rio Grande do Sul, which made her known in the whole country.

Affiliated with the Workers' Party since 2001, she was minister of energy during the first term of President Lula which began in January 2003, and in June 2005 she assumed the post of chief of staff.

Roussef was handpicked by President Lula himself to run for his succession and in April this year she left the post as chief of staff of the presidency.

Divorced, she has a daughter who gave birth to her first grandson last month.

In 2009, Rousseff had to undergo treatment for a cancer in the lymphatic system, from which she recovered quickly.