A woman places ‘President’ stickers on ballot boxes, as a polling station is set up at the national stadium in Santiago. Chile will hold a run-off presidential election today, for which former Chilean socialist president (2006-2010) Bachelet is the favourite, running against right-wing candidate Matthei.

DPA/AFP/Santiago

Chileans head to the polls today in a run-off election to choose a successor to President Sebastian Pinera, and one thing was clear enough: it will be a woman.
Socialist former president Michelle Bachelet and conservative Evelyn Matthei were the top two finishers in the November 17 first round, which the former won by a very large margin.
Last month, Bachelet, 62, who already served as president from 2006 to 2010, got 47% of the votes, while ruling-party candidate Matthei, 60, got only 25%.
Consecutive presidential terms are not allowed under Chilean law, so Pinera could not be a candidate in this election just like Bachelet could not stand in 2009.
Chile’s new system of voluntary voting was implemented for the first time in a general election last month, and only 49% of those registered to vote actually did so.
A higher turnout would be crucial to strengthen the future president politically, and both candidates have stressed the call for registered voters to cast their ballots.
The country’s education system will be a particularly crucial task for the incoming president, whoever she may be.
In Chile, even public schools and universities charge fees.
In recent years, there have been repeated mass protests for reform to improve access to education, and Bachelet has now taken on board student demands and wants to provide free education for those who need it.
Matthei is in favour of increasing access to student grants, but without doing away with the fee-paying system.
Bachelet’s centre-left coalition obtained 67 out of 120 lower house seats and 21 out of 38 Senate seats in the legislative election last month, so she would presumably have an easier ride as president, if she is actually elected.
Bachelet is widely expected to win the second time around.
Matthei, who served as labour minister under President Sebastian Pinera, did much better than expected in the first round, in which Bachelet had been predicted to win outright. But even she acknowledges the long odds for today’s run-off.
“We have fought to win and we believe we are going to win and if we win it will be the same as David against Goliath. It will be a miracle,” Matthei said in an interview on Thursday with Bio Bio Radio.
In an election twist, the two women share a common background as the daughters of Air Force generals who were close friends, and as young girls they played together.
But the 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power led their lives along different paths.
While General Alberto Bachelet was arrested the day of the coup and tortured to death for remaining loyal to ousted president Salvador Allende, Fernando Matthei went on to become part of the new regime’s military junta.
Now the daughters face each other from opposite sides of Chile’s political divide.
“We have two alternatives on December 15: one side which wants changes and another which believes the changes we are proposing are not necessary,” Bachelet said on Monday as a lacklustre campaign neared its end.
Cristobal Bellolio of Adolfo Ibanez University said the election is being held “in unprecedented circumstances, in that rarely have the second round results been so clear”.
“Matthei is going to lose. I do not know if it is going to be a landslide because it depends on how many people vote. But the right is going to suffer a major defeat,” he added.
A poll released on Wednesday indicated Bachelet will win with 63.7% of votes, compared to Matthei’s 33.7%.
The survey was conducted by the University of Santiago and pollster Ipsos.
“When voting is voluntary, the incentive is great when there is an emergency and in this case there is no emergency. Nor is there social unrest leading people to take to the streets to decide how their country is going to be run tomorrow, or uncertainty over the results, which is the other determining factor in the voluntary vote,” said Bellolio.
Because of the election, shops will be closed on the pre-Christmas weekend.