Tycoon Pinera Favourite In Chile Presidential Election

Chile is voting for a new president, with opinion polls suggesting billionaire Sebastian Pinera is the frontrunner. The centre-right businessman is one of four men vying for the job. He is up against three left and centre-left candidates - Eduardo Frei, Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate. BBC correspondents say the signs are that the country could be about to shift to the right, after 20 years of centre-left rule. If no-one manages to get 50% of the vote on Sunday, the two leading candidates will go through to a run-off on 17 January. Mr Pinera, 60, owns a television channel, a stake in Chile's most successful football club and has millions of dollars in investments. He has campaigned on a tough law-and-order ticket and has also vowed to use his business know-how to reactivate the economy, promising Chileans an annual growth rate of 6% for the next four years. The BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago says he looks certain to win Sunday's ballot. The big question, our correspondent says, is whether Mr Pinera can reach the crucial 50% mark which would secure outright victory and give Chile its first conservative government since 1990, when strongman Gen Augusto Pinochet finally relinquished power. If he cannot - and most polls suggest he will not - then the contest will go to a second round in January, in which Mr Pinera would probably face Eduardo Frei, 67, who is seeking his second term as president after an absence of 10 years. This is the second time Mr Pinera has run for the presidency at the head of a centre-right coalition. In 2006, he lost to the extremely popular outgoing Socialist president, Michelle Bachelet. But under the constitution she cannot stand for re-election, and her candidate, Mr Frei, is struggling to emulate her popularity. The third candidate is Marco Enriquez-Ominami, a 36-year-old independent who has emerged from nowhere and split the centre-left vote. He says Chile needs a new face and new ideas in the presidential palace, after two decades of the same coalition. The fourth candidate, and rank outsider, is Jorge Arrate, a veteran Socialist who has the support of Chile's Communist Party. The centre-left has been split by in-fighting, and many Chileans appear to be ready for a change, our correspondent says. If Mr Pinera is successful, it will mark the first time in 51 years that the conservatives have taken power in Chile via the ballot box. Story from BBC NEWS: