SANTIAGO, Chile _ Chilean magnate Sebastian Pinera coasted to victory in his bid for a second presidential term, easily beating center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier in a runoff by promising to kick-start the country's stagnant economy.
Pinera ran a campaign promising incentives to re-energize the economy, which is growing at a sluggish 1.4 percent rate this year. Guillier, a senator and former TV anchor, had promised to build on outgoing President Michelle Bachelet's social reforms, promote urban development and possibly raise taxes on the rich.
Voters' economic concerns evidently trumped social policies. With 96 percent of votes counted, Pinera had 54.6 percent to Guillier's 45.4 percent. Turnout was anemic, running at less than half the 14.3 million Chileans eligible.
Voters throughout the country were unmoved by government offers of free public transportation throughout the country. Bachelet said she regretted backing a law during her first term that made voting voluntary instead of obligatory.
"I was wrong, I thought that people had a greater civic spirit than they have shown," Bachelet told reporters after voting Sunday morning at a school in Santiago, the capital.
Pinera, who also voted at a school in downtown Santiago, said after casting his ballot that he was confident that Chileans "will choose the right path" and that the election's outcome would determine the country's path for "many decades."
Guillier voted in his native town of Antofagasta, a mining city on Chile's northern coast.
"This has been the most intense year of my life," Guillier said before boarding a flight for Santiago. The former broadcaster entered politics in 2013 with a victorious Senate campaign.
Interviewed after voting in Santiago, public relations executive Sonia Wulf said she voted for Pinera and "growth and development" because policies under Bachelet were too similar to the "populist model that resembles Venezuela."
Providencia fashion designer Carla Escobedo said she voted for Guillie
