Chile votes in presidential run-off

SANTIAGO: Chilean voters will decide their next president on Sunday in a run-off election whose outcome is far from certain after an unexpectedly strong surge for the left.

Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire former president who ruled from 2010-2014, is trying for a comeback to succeed center-left incumbent leader Michelle Bachelet, who is constitutionally excluded from standing again. But his plan could be upset by Alejandro Guillier, a senator and veteran TV presenter who is Bachelet´s candidate. In the first round, on November 19, Pinera went in as the runaway favorite — but then garnered a lower-than-expected 37 percent of the vote to Guillier´s 22 percent.

Most problematically for Pinera, a surprising 20 percent of ballots went to a third-placed radical-left candidate, Beatriz Sanchez, and many could now go Guillier´s way. “The election will probably come down to a difference of less than 20,000 votes,” said political scientist Marcello Mella at the University of Santiago. Voting will begin at 8:00 am (1100 GMT) and end at 6:00 pm (2100 GMT), with official results expected within the following two hours. With a possibly tight race before them, both candidates fiercely wooed the 13.4 million voters. A high turnout would benefit Guillier, analysts said.

Pinera, who is worth $2.7 billion according to Forbes magazine, has painted himself as the most experienced steward of the economy. “I´m not promising heaven and earth, but I promise that Chile will grow robustly,” he said in a debate this week. Though copper exports, which contribute greatly to Chile´s wealth, are increasing thanks to demand from China and from the burgeoning manufacture of electric cars, the country is struggling relative to previous years. Its GDP is forecast to expand a modest 1.4 percent this year, the slowest pace in eight years. Pinera, 68, and Guillier, 64, are also promising to expand free university tuition brought in under Bachelet — a measure with historical resonance in Chile because paid tuition was introduced under the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.