Billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera has won Chile's presidency, with his centre-left opponent Alejandro Guillier conceding the election as Chile followed other South American nations in a political turn to the right.
With 98.44 per cent of the ballots counted, Pinera, 68, had won 54.57 per cent in the run-off vote, to 45.43 per cent for senator Guillier, a wider than expected margin in a race that pollsters had predicted would be tight.
Months of campaigning exposed deepening rifts among the country's once bedrock centre-left, an opening former president Pinera leveraged to rally more centrist voters around his proposals to cut corporate taxes, double economic growth and eliminate poverty in the world's top copper producer.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Many Chileans had viewed the election as a referendum on senator Guillier's policies, which focused on reducing inequality by making education more affordable and overhauling the tax code.
Pinera painted Guillier, a former TV anchorman and current senator, as extreme in a country known for its moderation, and likened him to Venezuela socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
But Pinera's own conservative agenda may also struggle, at a time when efforts by his ideological allies in Brazil and Argentina to reduce fiscal deficits by cutting spending have faced political opposition and sparked protests.
