Chilean Election Heads to Second Round as Billionaire Takes Lead

(Bloomberg) -- Chile’s presidential election is heading for a hotly contested second round after billionaire Sebastian Pinera took a smaller-than-expected lead in Sunday’s vote.

The opposition leader had 36.7 percent of the vote with 89 percent of ballots counted, the electoral service said, short of the 50 percent plus one vote he needed to avoid a run-off. His rival in the second round is likely to be Alejandro Guillier of the ruling coalition, who has 22.7 percent, while Beatriz Sanchez of the left-wing Frente Amplio alliance had 20.3 percent.

The latest opinion poll by the Centro de Estudios Publicos had showed Pinera with 44.4 percent support in the first round, more than double any other candidate.

Pinera is bidding for a second term in office after first serving from 2010 to 2014, when a copper boom pushed economic growth to an average 5.4 percent. In his latest campaign, the opposition leader has pledged to double growth, slash poverty and create thousands of new “quality” jobs. It is a manifesto that has hit home with voters after growth averaged just 1.6 percent under the government of President Michelle Bachelet.

To fend off the billionaire, Guillier must persuade everyone on the center-left to unify around his campaign for the second round. That includes supporters of Sanchez and Carolina Goic, a Christian Democrat candidate who won 5.9 percent of the early vote, according to Servel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Sanders in Santiago at psanders@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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