Bachelet poised for big win as Chile votes for president
Santiago (AFP) - Chile's former president Michelle Bachelet appeared poised Sunday to reclaim the office, as her South American nation voted on a replacement for conservative leader Sebastian Pinera.
Bachelet, 62, deemed the far and away favorite among nine candidates, held a commanding lead in recent opinion polls showing she had close to the 50 percent needed to win in the first round of balloting and avoid a runoff.
She beamed and appeared confident as she cast her ballot at a polling station in a school east of Santiago.
"Our effort has been to urge people to get out and vote so we can win in the first round, because there are plenty of things to do," she told reporters.
Pre-vote surveys showed Bachelet with 47 percent support -- but pollsters predicted she could end up with the votes necessary to avoid a runoff.
Balloting generally went smoothly Sunday, although a group of protesting students occupied Bachelet's campaign headquarters calling for election reform. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury from that act of civil disobedience, however.
For the most part "there has been nothing unusual, and the voting process is going forward with complete normalcy," said Jose Manuel Cichero, the official charged with overseeing the conduct of the balloting.
A pediatrician who was Chile's first woman president from 2006 to 2010, Bachelet seeks to overhaul the country's political and economic system, a legacy of Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 military dictatorship.
Bachelet wants to raise business taxes to offer free university, answering the demands of a powerful student movement that led a series of massive protests since 2011.
The daughter of an air force general and a separated mother of three, Bachelet is supported by a "New Majority" alliance of socialists, Christian Democrats and communists.
Chile has the best GDP per capita in Latin America -- $22,362 based on purchasing power parity -- but half of the nation's 17 million people make less than $500 per month.
Bachelet has pledged to bring a "new cycle" of reforms to reverse the country's wide income gap.
Outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, who cannot run for re-election and took office when Bachelet's first term ended in 2010, earlier made a fervent call for a strong turnout.
Evelyn Matthei, the conservative candidate and the distant runner-up in the polls, said after voting that she was certain that she would be in a run-off vote.
"In the end, the only valid poll is the one today," a smiling Matthei told reporters after casting her ballot.
The 60-year-old Matthei, a former labor minister under Pinera and former legislator for the ultraconservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI), has 14 percent support according to pre-vote surveys.
She has called for a continuation of the legacy of the deeply unpopular Pinera, claiming that a Bachelet victory would represent a move backwards.
Matthei was the second choice conservative candidate after the first choice, Pablo Longueira, declined nomination due to depression.
Competing for third place are independent economist Franco Parisi, a surprise candidate who jumped into the political arena less than a year ago, and filmmaker Marco Enriquez Ominami, who in 2009 won 20 percent of the presidential vote but is not expected to score more than 10 percent this year
Voting booths opened across the country under military protection at 8:00 am (1100 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 6:00 pm (2100 GMT), Chile's Electoral Service reported.
In one novelty, for the first time since democracy was restored in 1990 voting is no longer compulsory.
More than 13 million of the country's 16.5 million inhabitants are registered to vote.
Voters will also elect all 120 members of the chamber of deputies, 20 senators, and local and regional officials.
The legislative vote will be key to whether Bachelet's ambitious reform plans will succeed.
