BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won the presidential election on Sunday, becoming the country's first woman re-elected as president.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner reacts while celebrating her victory in Argentina's presidential election at the Plaza de Mayo square in Buenos Aires October 23, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Born in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires province, on February 19, 1953, Fernandez studied law at the National University of La Plata in the 1970s, where she met her spouse Nestor Kirchner and married him in 1975.

Fernandez was elected as a deputy of the provincial legislature of Argentina's southern Santa Cruz province in 1989, and was elected to the national parliament as a senator representing Santa Cruz in 1995.

She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, the country's lower house, in 1997 and then returned to the Senate in 2001.

During the 2003 general elections, Fernandez was the main backbone of her husband's successful campaign for presidency. She then worked as an itinerant ambassador for Kirchner's government.

On December 10, 2007, she succeeded her husband as Argentina's first elected female president.

Fernandez, popular among young voters, pledged to boost the country's economy, science and education, human rights protection and regional integration with other Latin American nations.

Kirchner died last October after suffering a heart attack.