E-Kantipur

SANTIAGO, DEC 13 - Chileans went to the polls on Sunday in general elections that are likely to propel to the presidency a conservative billionaire who is challenging the center-left coalition's 20-year rule.

Sebastian Pinera, 60, whose fortune is put at 1.2 billion dollars by Forbes magazine, has a solid lead over his leftwing rivals, former president Eduardo Frei, 67, and a charismatic former film director, Marco Enriquez-Ominami, 36, according to voter intention surveys.

Should he win, it would mean a return to rightwing rule for Chile -- a prosperous South American nation that is the world's biggest copper producer -- for the first time since the end of General Augusto Pinochet's 1974-1990 military dictatorship.

Current President Michelle Bachelet is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election for a second four-year term, despite enjoying skyhigh popularity.

Sunday's elections will also renew Chile's 120-seat Chamber of Deputies and 20 of the 38 members of the Senate.

Balloting began throughout the country at 7:00 am (1000 GMT) and was expected to end at 4:00 pm (1900 GMT), with first official results due around three hours later.

There are 8.3 million registered voters in Chile, with a bias towards an older electorate because of apathy among the country's youth.

Numbers offered by pre-election surveys suggested that a second, run-off round would be needed in the presidential race because it looked unlikely that any of the candidates would get more than 50 percent of the ballots.

Pinera is credited with 44-percent support, while Frei, the candidate chosen by the leftwing Concertacion coalition, trails with 31 percent and Enriquez-Ominami, an independent, with 18 percent, according to a Public Studies Center (CERC) survey.

"These are the best conditions ever for the right to win the presidential election," said Carlos Huneeus, the head of the CERC that conducted the most recent voter intention surveys.

"I don't exclude the possibility of (the right) winning in the first round," he added.

A knockout duel between Pinera and Frei in a second round on January 17 could see Pinera triumph with 49 percent to Frei's 32 percent, the CERC poll said.

"The time of the Concertacion coalition is over," Pinera boasted ahead of the polls. "They exhausted themselves politically a long time ago."

But if he were to win the presidency, Pinera -- who has interests in television, Chile's LAN airline and a football club -- would have to contend with a Congress filled with many members of the Concertacion, making legislative passage tricky.

Issues confronting whoever becomes Chile's new president include a diplomatic row with neighboring Peru over alleged espionage, and managing a return to economic growth after a contraction brought on this year by the global crisis.

Posted on: 2009-12-13 09:14

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