Billionaire leads leftists in early Chile returns [View All]

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Source: ap

SANTIAGO, Chile – A right-wing billionaire led three leftists with 45 percent of the votes Sunday in early returns from Chile's election, short of the majority needed to avoid a January runoff for the presidency.

With less than 13 percent of the vote counted, Sebastian Pinera led the ruling coalition's candidate, former President Eduardo Frei, who had 32 percent.

Socialist Rep. Marco Enriquez-Ominami, who broke away from the ruling coalition in a dispute with Frei, had 18 percent, and Jorge Arrate, representing an outsider coalition led by Communists, had 5 percent, according to the first official nationwide results.

The trend was expected to roughly hold through Sunday's vote count, putting Pinera and Frei in a Jan. 17 runoff election where the key question will be whether leftists can unify to fend off the most moderate candidate Chile's right has ever had.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_election