( 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 . Her opponent , Jose Serra , also suffered persecution during Brazil 's military rule and was forced into exile during the 1960s . A centrist politician , he served as health minister during Fernando Henrique Cardoso 's government . He recently left his job as governor of Brazil 's richest state , Sao Paulo , to run for presidency . Millions of voters lined up across Brazil 's vast territory to vote in the heated runoff . In 60 Brazilian cities , voters used their thumbs instead of ballots on a newly launched biometric system , where voters scan their fingers to log in and vote . TSE officials said all regions , however remote , will have the ubiquitous electronic voting machine . In indigenous areas in the Amazon , these voting machines were delivered by boats and helicopters . It costs the state of Amazonas 5 million reais . ( U.S. $ 3 million ) to place the voting machines . One of the most challenging trajectories , officials said , is the one to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira , a densly-forested area in the Amazon . `` There , our electronic machines first leave Manaus by plane , '' said Pedro Batista , TSE Director for the Amazon . `` It 's loaded onto a helicopter , and then travels by boat before being carried on some one 's back for a long walk to a remote village , '' he said . In Sao Paulo , Brazil 's largest city , voters faced heavy rains and threats of flooding .
Notes : ` ` My goal is to eradicate poverty , '' Rousseff says in victory speech . ' Rousseff runs against Jose Serra in a runoff . She 's a a former left - wing guerrilla fighter turned chief of staff .