Chilean presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet shows her vote before casting it during the election in Santiago yesterday, hours before being declared the winner. - REUTERS
SANTIAGO (AP):
SOCIALIST MICHELLE Bachelet, a former political prisoner, won Chile's presi-dential election yesterday to become the country's first woman leader and extend the rule of the country's market-friendly centre-left coalition.
With 67 per cent of some eight million votes counted, Bachelet had 53.2 per cent of the vote to multimillionaire busines-sman Sebastian Pinera's 46.7 per cent, according to returns announced by the government.
Harvard-trained economist Pinera conceded defeat, calling Bachelet "president-elect" in an emotional speech to supporters.
"I congratulate Michelle Bachelet for her victory," he said. "I also desire Michelle the greatest possible success."
Bachelet's coalition has governed Chile since the end of the 1973-90 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Current President Ricardo Lagos made her his Health Minister, then in 2002 named her Defence Minister. She won praise for helping heal divisions between civilians and military left over from the dictatorship.
LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY
Bachelet, 54, will be only the third woman to be directly elected president of a Latin American country, following Violeta Chamorro, who governed Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997, and Mireya Moscoso, president of Panama from 1999 to 2004.
However, Bachelet, unlike Chamorro and Mireya, did not follow a politically prominent husband into power.
Bachelet's father was an air force general who was arrested and tortured for opposing the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. Alberto Bachelet died in prison of a heart attack, probably caused by the torture, Bachelet says.
A 22-year-old medical student at the time, Bachelet was also arrested along with her mother and later forced into five years of exile, first in Australia, then in communist East Germany.
She will follow into power Lagos, who has deftly balanced his socialist ideology with market-oriented economics and enjoys an approval rate above 70 per cent. Lagos is constitutionally prohibited from seeking immediate re-election.
Bachelet factfile
Born September 29, 1951.
Medical degree from the University of Chile, specialised in paediatrics; military studies at the American Defence College.
Health Minister, 2000-2002; Defence Minister, 2002-2004.
Separated from husband; three children - Sebastian, Francisca, Sofia.
