Billionaire Wins Chile's Presidency

SANTIAGO (AFP) – A billionaire media magnate, Sebastian Pinera, is to become the next president of Chile after a runoff election Sunday that put an end to a 20-year hold on power by the leftwing coalition of outgoing head-of-state Michelle Bachelet.

Bachelet's defeated candidate, Eduardo Frei, a former president himself, conceded defeat after an official count of most ballots showed Pinera had picked up 52 percent to his 48 percent.

Bachelet was constitutionally barred from seeking another term.

The victory by Pinera, 60, marked the defeat of the Concertacion coalition of four leftwing and centrist parties that had governed Chile since the 1990 exit of dictator General August Pinochet.

Chile's very wealthy president-elect Sebastian Pinera

The billionaire, who owns one of Chile's four television networks and a big stake in flagship airline LAN among many other business interests, is seen likely to continue social policies that left Bachelet with skyhigh popularity ratings of around 80 percent.

He promised though, that the change represented by his victory would be "like opening the window to let fresh air in."

Pinera easily won the first round of the presidential elections on December 13, but then saw his lead narrow to a statistical dead heat with Frei as Bachelet leveraged her popularity in defense of her candidate.

In the end, he squeaked through, according to an official count from 60 percent of polling stations. Complete results were expected by the early hours of Monday.
Bachelet said as she voted that she would fulfill her duties whoever emerged victorious.

"At the appropriate time, I will call the president-elect and tomorrow, all the powers of the state will salute the president," she said.

Some 8.3 million people were eligible to vote in Chile, one of Latin America's most prosperous nations.

Frei, widely portrayed as uncharismatic, wished his rival luck.

"I want to congratulate Sebastian Pinera. The majority of Chileans gave him their trust to direct the fate of the country for the next four years," he said.
"I hope that what will prevail will be dialogue, the search for consensus and the retention of social conquests that were hard-won and which have been transformed into a symbol of our relationship with the world," he said.

Frei spoke just after Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma confirmed Pinera's victory.

"The country today wanted a change. It has swung to the right, and we wish the new government all the best," Perez Yoma told reporters.

Pinera's spokesman hailed the result, saying: "We are very happy, very satisfied."
He vowed that Pinera's administration would work for "a more just and happier" Chile.
The triumph was being savored by Pinera, who four years ago lost in his first presidential bid to Bachelet.

One of the principal preoccupations he will have to address, however, are potential conflicts of interest highlighted by Bachelet.

Pinera -- who Forbes magazine says has a fortune of 1.2 billion dollars -- has interests in many activities in Chile, including strategic sectors such as the media and aeronautics as well as a football club, and the outgoing president suggested strongly that maintaining such businesses could raise conflict of interest questions.
Chilean presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera, of the National Renewal party, casts his vote in Santiago.