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Billionaire seen winning tight Chile vote
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Billionaire seen winning tight Chile vote
	
	
		
Simon Gardner and Alonso Soto
		
SANTIAGO
		
Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:55pm EST
	
               
      
 
      
               
      
      
        
               
               
                    
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SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A conservative billionaire was seen narrowly winning Chile's presidential election on Sunday in a tight race that could end 20 years of center-left rule in Latin America's most stable economy.
 
			World
Sebastian Pinera, a Harvard-educated airline magnate, was expected to win 52 percent of the vote while his leftist rival, former President Eduardo Frei, had 48 percent, according to a vote projection by Canal 13, a Chilean television station.
In a separate media projection, Radio BioBio said Pinera was expected to take 50.7 percent. Frei, a candidate for the leftist coalition that has governed the world's top copper producer since the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, was close behind with 49.3 percent, it said.
A victory by Pinera would mark a shift to the right in South America, a region dominated by leftist rulers from Venezuela to Argentina, although no major changes to economic policy are expected whoever wins.
Many Chileans are disenchanted with the ruling center-left "Concertacion" coalition and say the government could have made better use of billions of dollars in copper boom savings. They are also fed up that an old guard dominates politics.
Pinera, ranked No. 701 on Forbes' global list of the world's richest individuals, won 44 percent in the December 13 first-round vote, while Frei took 29.6 percent.
It was the first time the right outpolled the left in a presidential vote since Chile returned to democracy in 1990.
With the field narrowed, both Frei and Pinera scrambled to woo the supporters of a maverick independent who divided the left, polled third with 20 percent and missed the run-off.
Pinera, 60, who made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile and has a major stake in flagship airline LAN, has benefited from divisions in the ruling coalition.
He has also sought to distance himself from the bloody legacy of Pinochet's rule, when more than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" and about 28,000 people were tortured, and has reached out to the large middle class.
He has vowed to give Chile's state-owned enterprises an overhaul to boost efficiency, create a million jobs and boost economic growth to an average 6 percent a year. The economy contracted in 2009 in its first recession in a decade.
Frei, whose 1994-2000 presidency was shaken by that recession, vowed on the campaign trail to continue with popular President Michelle Bachelet's welfare policies and says his priorities include labor reform. He has also sought to revive memories of the right's support for Pinochet.
(Additional reporting by Alonso Soto, Rodrigo Martinez, Antonio de la Jara, Aaron Nelsen, Alvaro Tapia, Juana Casas; editing by Kevin Gray and Kieran Murray)
			
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