Chile: A socialist who was tortured and exiled under Chile's military dictatorship moved a step closer to becoming the country's first woman leader as voters in Latin America's star economy cast ballots yesterday.
Polls show front-runner Michelle Bachelet is likely to become the fourth consecutive president from the centre-left coalition that has been in power since the end in 1990 of Augusto Pinochet's 17-year regime.
But Ms Bachelet, who won popularity in 2003 as an unlikely defence minister, was not anticipated to get the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win in the first round against two candidates from the divided rightist opposition.
Riding Chile's robust economy she is expected to triumph in a run-off on January 15th, probably with a firm hold on Congress, where her bloc is predicted to solidify majorities in both houses in yesterday's parliamentary elections.
"This is a day where each woman and each man is worth the same, one vote . . . I'm confident we are going to elect a woman president for the first time in Chile's history," Ms Bachelet said after casting her ballot.
Chileans lined up to vote in scorching summer weather. Red Cross workers helped people who collapsed in the heat at several polling stations.
The earliest polling stations to open in the morning started to close at 4:00pm local time and the first official results will be released at 6:30pm.
"We have to demonstrate that we are capable. We are in charge at home and we can also be in charge [of the country]," said Maria Ines Rigole (49), who cast a ballot for Ms Bachelet in eastern Santiago.
Ms Bachelet, a separated mother of three and an agnostic, represents a dramatic change in Chile over the last five years in attitudes about birth control, homosexuality and teenage sex. Chile legalised divorce just last year.
She has pledged a major overhaul of Chile's private pension system, and is expected to continue the successful mix of free-market economics and leftist social reforms of popular president Ricardo Lagos, who cannot run again. If elected, Ms Bachelet will serve a four-year term.
Each of the right-wing opposition candidates proclaimed he would be the one to face Ms Bachelet in the run-off.
"There will be a second round and it will be Michelle Bachelet on one side, leading the somewhat worn-out [ruling bloc], and me on the other side heading a new, younger, stronger coalition," said billionaire former senator Sebastian Pinera, who represents the right's moderate wing and who has promised to create one million jobs to bring down stubbornly high unemployment figures.- (Reuters)