Piñera Victorious

“Millionaire Sebastián Piñera won a landmark victory in Sunday’s presidential election, and will become Chile’s first conservative leader since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet two decades ago. With 99% of polling places reporting, Mr. Piñera had 51.6% of the vote, compared to 48.3% for Eduardo Frei, an ex-president who was the candidate of the center-left Concertación coalition that has governed Chile since 1990. Mr. Frei conceded defeat early Sunday evening. Mr. Piñera, 60, who has interests in Chile’s biggest airline, a soccer club and a television station, had to overcome questions over his business dealings, as well as voters’ dark memories of the Pinochet dictatorship. While Chile is the most stable economy in Latin America, Mr. Piñera benefitted from voter fatigue with the Concertación after a decade when economic growth was less vigorous than it had been during much of the 1990s and 1980s.”