Partial results in Chiles presidential election Sunday give a clear victory to the centre-left candidate Michelle Bachelet, with 53 per cent of the vote, BBC Online reports Sunday night.
With two-thirds of the run-off vote counted, she is set to become the countrys first woman president. Her rival, conservative businessman Sebastian Pinera, has so far polled 46,8 per cent, the interior ministry said.
Ms Bachelets win consolidates a swing to the political left in Latin America.
The election is the fourth since Chile returned to democracy in 1990 after 17 years of military rule. The second round of voting was called after no candidate secured the 50 per cent required for outright victory in the first round in December.
Both candidates have promised to tackle rising crime and high unemployment, our correspondent says, so Chileans had to decide who they think best qualified to do that.
The 54-year-old Ms Bachelet, who was defence minister under outgoing President Ricardo Lagos, has promised to continue the countrys recent economic success and to create a more just society.
She is set to become the fourth consecutive president from the centre-left coalition known as the Concertacion, which has governed Chile since the end of military rule in 1990.
A doctor and a single mother, Ms Bachelet is seen as an unusual choice for the presidency in a country considered one of the most socially conservative in South America, BBC adds.
