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Pinera Will Face Frei in Chilean Presidential Run-Off Election

   Conservative  Chilean  billionaire gets most votes, but falls short of
   outright majority needed to avoid run-off

   VOA News 13 December 2009

Photo: AP

   Sebastian   Pinera,  presidential  candidate  for  Chile's  opposition
   "Coalition  for  Change,"  holds  up  his  ballot before casting it in
   general elections in Santiago, Sunday, 13 Dec. 2009

   Conservative  Chilean  billionaire  Sebastian  Pinera has garnered the
   most  votes in Sunday's presidential election, but fallen short of the
   outright majority he needed to avoid a run-off.
   With  about  60 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Pinera had just over
   44  percent  of the vote, with former President Eduardo Frei garnering
   30 percent. Mr. Frei ran the country from 1994 to 2000.
   A  run-off  election  between  Mr.  Pinera  and  Mr. Frei will be held
   January  17.   If  Mr.  Pinera  wins,  it  will  be  the  first time a
   conservative  has  led  the  country since it returned to democracy 19
   years ago.
   The  winner  will  replace  the  popular  outgoing  President Michelle
   Bachelet,  who  cannot  run for a second consecutive term.  Mr. Pinera
   lost to Ms. Bachelet in the last presidential vote in 2006.
   Mr. Pinera, a Harvard-educated economist, owns a television station, a
   soccer  (football)  team  and  a  stake  in  Lan Airlines.  If elected
   president, he is expected to steer Latin America's most stable economy
   toward more free-market policies.
   The  government  coalition known as the Concertacion has been in power
   in Chile since democracy was reinstated in 1990.

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