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(CNN) — Brazil’s new president-elect vowed to continue her predecessor’s move to fight against inequality and promote human rights and fight poverty in her victory speech Sunday night.

“My mission is to eradicate poverty,” Dilma Rousseff said after the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared her the winner in Sunday’s runoff election.

As the nation’s first woman to hold the office, Rousseff said she has a mission to fight for more gender equality in Brazil.

“I hope the fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say yes, women can.”

Rousseff — President Luiz Inacio da Silva’s right-hand woman — has served as his chief of staff.

Previously, as energy minister, she claims to have helped turn Brazil into one of the world’s leading energy giants.

A left-wing guerrilla fighter during the military dictatorship rule in the 1960s, Rousseff said during a congressional hearing that she was “barbarically tortured” after she was charged with subversion by the military regime.

Read more at CNN