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Chilean voters to elect new president

SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Voters in Chile chose a successor to President Michelle Bachelet Sunday with polls indicating a conservative billionaire would win the majority of votes.

If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff election will be scheduled.

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A poll by the Center for the Study of Contemporary Reality suggested billionaire businessmen Sebastian Pinera would win 44.1 percent of the vote, followed by former President Eduardo Frei with 31 percent and Socialist lawmaker Marco Enriquez-Ominami with 17.7 percent.

The highly popular Bachelet was limited by law to one four-year term.

The Harvard-educated Pinera once supported former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but that has not hurt his popularity, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Pinera owns a television station, a soccer team and is part owner of LAN-Chile airline.

Supporters said his entrepreneurial skills could help pull Chile out of its economic crisis and move the country behind a current economic model based on exports of fresh food, wine and natural resources.

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