Sebastian Pinera who is ranked No. 701 on Forbes' global list of the world's richest individuals,has won Chile's presidential election, becoming the nation's first democratically elected right-wing president in 52 years.With 99 per cent of the ballots counted on Sunday, the billionaire conservative candidate had a 52 per cent to 48 per cent advantage over Eduardo Frei, the left leaning former president, who conceded defeat.
Source:The Agencies
- The victory by Pinera, a Harvard-educated airline magnate, marks 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.
- Chile, with a population of 16 million, has the highest standard of living in Latin America, according to the Human Development Index, which measures education, health, income and other factors.
- But many voters, disenchanted with the ruling centre-left "Concertacion" coalition that has governed the world's top copper producer since the end of General Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 reign, said it was time for a change.
- Critics said the government could have made better use in recent years of billions of dollars in copper boom savings and there was also growing frustration over an old guard dominating politics.
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