Chile election: conservative Piñera leads in vote count

In Chile, conservative candidate Sebastián Piñera has a clear lead in the presidential run-off with most votes counted.

He is up against Alejandro Guillier, who has been endorsed by the current socialist President Michelle Bachelet.

With more than 90% of votes counted, Mr Piñera has over 54%.

The ballot was billed as a straight choice between very different economic visions for the country, with observers watching for a right-wing swing.

About 14 million were eligible to vote in the election, including Chileans living abroad for the first time.

Billionaire businessman Mr Piñera won the first round of votes by a large margin, when the number of candidates reduced from eight to two for a final run-off.

He has already governed the country from 2010 to 2014, when he ended two decades of uninterrupted centre-left rule. But the former president had only a slim lead in the most recent opinion polls before Sunday's election vote.

During his campaign, he promised to rein in the reforms brought in by President Bachelet, while his opponent Mr Guillier, on the other hand, campaigned on the back of her legacy.

While President Bachelet's progressive agenda has won plaudits abroad, her popularity plummeted during her second term, due in part to a 2015 corruption scandal involving her daughter-in-law.

This year, however, the president overcame conservative opposition to successfully ease Chile's strict anti-abortion laws.

Conservative critics say Ms Bachelet pushed her reforms too far. She was unable to seek re-election under the country's constitution.

Mr Guillier, a former journalist, represents six parties in a left-wing coalition. He beat former president Ricardo Lagos for the Socialist Party nomination in April 2017, promising to continue Ms Bachulet's broad reform programme.

A decade ago, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela were all governed by left-wing leaders.

But in recent years, conservatives have come to power in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" has come under severe pressure with anti-government protesters taking to the streets for months.

Source: BBC NEWS