SANTIAGO: Chileans voted for a successor to President Michelle Bachelet on Sunday, with billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera the favorite to win, though a crowded field of leftist challengers are likely to force a December runoff. Opinion polls show Pinera, who was president between 2010 and 2014 and leads the Chile Vamos bloc, with a commanding lead over his seven mostly left-of-center rivals, but still shy of the 50 percent needed for an outright win. “Pinera´s the best candidate. Plus, he already governed. We know who he is,” said Fresia Jara, a 73-year-old retiree as she left a polling station in the capital Santiago. Former TV anchorman, Senator Alejandro Guillier, is the flagbearer for Bachelet´s fractured center-left Nueva Mayoria coalition. He leads the race for second place, with around 21 percent of likely voter support compared to about 42 percent for Pinera, according to a CEP poll last month. 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. “This year´s 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. Many Chileans view the election as a referendum on her second term, which focused on reducing inequality by expanding access to free education and overhauling the tax code. Pinera, the market favorite, campaigned on a platform of scaling back and “perfecting” her tax and labor laws, seen by many in the business community as having crimped investment at a time when slumping copper prices were already driving down economic growth in the world´s No. 1 copper producer.
