A SINGLE mother who was tortured under the Pinochet dictatorship has been elected Chile’s first woman president.

In a second vote, the Socialist Michelle Bachelet won 53.5 per cent of the vote, with Sebastian Piñera, one of the country’s wealthiest businessmen, trailing on 46.5 per cent. Señora Bachelet won the first round last month, but failed to secure the required 50 per cent of the vote.

Señor Piñera conceded defeat on television and congratulated his rival on her “triumph”.

Señora Bachelet, 54, is a former Health and Defence Minister who represents the centre-left coalition that has been in power since the end of General Pinochet’s military regime in 1990. She has promised to continue the present Government’s economic policies, which have made Chile one of South America’s fastest-growing economies.

Señor Piñera, who is head of a right-wing alliance, argued that Chile needed a change because the Government had failed to fight crime and unemployment and had criticised the ruling coalition, saying it, rather than Señora Bachelet, ran his rival’s campaign.

Although she has denied such claims, it is clear that her popularity has been boosted, at least in part, by the Government’s success.

However, Michelle Bachelet also represents a new era for many Chileans: a Socialist, agnostic, single mother of three children, she defies convention in one of South America’s most conservative nations.

She had promised to create a more equal society, giving more opportunities to women, the middle class and Chile’s indigenous population, who have traditionally been marginalised by the political and business elite.

The daughter of an air force general who was tortured and later died under the military regime of General Pinochet, Señora Bachelet was herself imprisoned, tortured and later exiled by the dictatorship.

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