Pinera wins another turn as Chile’s president

Former President Sebastian Pinera’s resounding victory in a presidential runoff election swings Chile back to the right and highlights the increasing number of conservative leaders who have won power in Latin America.

With nearly all ballots counted, the billionaire won 54.6 per cent of the votes Sunday to 45.4 per cent for former journalist and centre-left Sen. Alejandro Guillier. Analysts had predicted a much closer contest, feeling Guillier had gained ground, although there had not been any opinion polls since the election’s first round in November.

Pinera, who ran on a platform of boosting sluggish economic growth in the world’s top copper producer, thanked his opponents and called for unity.

“Today the voice of all Chileans has been heard,” Pinera told supporters Sunday night. “We wel- come this triumph with humility and hope.”

The results prompted celebrations by Pinera’s supporters across the country of 17 million people. Some people waved flags and held banners, while others beeped car horns and yelled out the last name of the former airline magnate who also was president in 2010-14.

Pinera, 68, won last month’s first round, but fell far short of what polls had projected. Turnout had been expected to be low for the runoff because in contrast to other regional countries, Chile made voting voluntary rather than mandatory in 2012.

“Pinera managed to gather a big majority of the votes from centre-left candidates” who were in the opening round, said Javier Sajuria, a lecturer in politics at Queen Mary University of London. “What happened here is that Pinera managed to mobilize nonvoters in a way that we haven’t seen since voluntary voting was started.”