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Ex-Chile leader Pinera in lead to win presidential election

Other News Materials 20 November 2017 03:43 (UTC +04:00)
Chileans voted for a successor to President Michelle Bachelet on Sunday, with billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera leading an early count of ballots, though the crowded field of leftist hopefuls will likely force a December runoff
Ex-Chile leader Pinera in lead to win presidential election

Chileans voted for a successor to President Michelle Bachelet on Sunday, with billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera leading an early count of ballots, though the crowded field of leftist hopefuls will likely force a December runoff, Reuters reported.

A mid-point vote count showed Pinera, who was president between 2010 and 2014 and leads the Chile Vamos bloc, with 37 percent of votes and a commanding lead over his seven mostly left-of-center rivals.

But that was still some way shy of the 50 percent needed for an outright win.

Former TV anchorman, Senator Alejandro Guillier, the flagbearer for Bachelet’s fractured center-left Nueva Mayoria coalition, was coming in second with 23 percent.

But leftist Beatriz Sanchez was snapping at his heels with 20 percent, closer than opinions polls had suggested.

The election is the latest in South America to pit left-leaning politicians against the conservatives increasingly taking their places.

Pinera has pitched himself as a vote for a brighter future.

“Today we’re going to make a decision that will impact our lives for many decades,” Pinera told journalists after voting at a school in Santiago on Sunday. “I know we’re going to pick the right path, the one that takes us to better times.”

The vote is a turning point for Chile’s coalition of center-left parties, previously known as the Concertacion. The pact, which for decades has dominated Chilean politics, fissured under Bachelet, riven by disagreements over policies such as loosening Chile’s strict abortion laws and strengthening unions.

Bachelet, who is barred from running in this election by term limits, will step down with approval ratings near 30 percent and the legacy of her social and economic policies uncertain.

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