Both Bachelet and Pinera called the election "a great day" as they cast ballots at separate schools in the same upper-class neighborhood in the capital, Santiago.

Backers of outgoing President Ricardo Lagos were already thinking of the next presidential election four years away as he voted amid supporters' chants of "2010!"

Lagos, who has deftly balanced his socialist ideology with market-oriented economics, enjoys an approval rate above 70 percent but is constitutionally prohibited from seeking immediate re-election.

If Bachelet wins, she would become Chile's first female president and continue the dominance of the ruling coalition that took power at the end of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

She won the first round of voting on December 11 with 46 percent, but was forced into a runoff because she failed to win an outright majority. Pinera was second with 25 percent.

In spite of their different political backgrounds and ideologies, both candidates to succeed Lagos have outlined strikingly similar basic goals, promising to continue the two-decade-long free-market policies that have made Chile's economy one of the healthiest in the region.

A Leader Making Peace With Chile's Past

SANTIAGO, Chile, Jan. 15 - Michelle Bachelet, who was elected Sunday as president of this male-dominated, prosperous and deeply religious nation of 16 million, is a woman and an agnostic, a guitar-strumming child of the 60's, a former exile who spent part of her childhood in the United States, and a physician, who has never before held elective office.

Running as a Socialist on a platform that promised "change with continuity" and showcased her warmth and affinity with ordinary people, Ms. Bachelet, a fair-haired, vibrant 54-year-old, won more than 53 percent of the vote, according to the official tally. She made few promises beyond "social inclusion" - vowing to better meet the needs of women and the poor - and preserving Chile's economy, the most dynamic in Latin America, and the country's close ties with the United States.

"Violence ravaged my life," Ms. Bachelet said Sunday night, in an impassioned victory speech to a jubilant crowd gathered on the main downtown avenue here. "I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred."

Excellent NYT article with a full coverage of her life’s experiences, her years living in the U.S., the Allende overthrow, her imprisonment and torture under Pinochet, her family’s exile to Australia and Europe, the years spend in Communist DDR, the lifting of the exile, and her return to Chile working as a pediatrician after finishing medical school.

Upon her return to Chile in 1979, as the expulsion order against her mother was being lifted, Ms. Bachelet finished medical school, specializing in pediatrics and public health. Though she graduated near the top of her class, her family name and political affiliations made it difficult for her to find employment. She ended up working at a clinic financed by Sweden that treated children from families that had been victims of torture and political repression.

In 1994, after having worked in AIDS and epidemiological programs, she became an adviser to the Ministry of Health. But she retained her familial fascination with military affairs, and in 1996 enrolled in a program in strategic studies at the national war college.

Ms. Bachelet excelled there, and was invited to study at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington. She did so in 1997, and after her return, she went to work in the Defense Ministry and was also elected to the political commission of the Socialist Party, specializing in defense and military issues.

Results, can be followed on the official Chilean elections site (and compared to earlier elections).

The political landscape in Chile
- The ruling Concertación Democrática centre-left block is a four-party alliance (from Socialists to Christian Democrats) and follows a moderate line;
- the main opposition group Alianza consists of a post-fascist centrist and a hard-right party, and champions both social and economic conservativism;
- the Juntos Podemos Más hard-left block contains the communist and humanist parties, and opposes the ruling alliance on grounds of concessions to neoliberalism;
- there are also a number of independents and candidates only part of a block, but not a party.

Results of the first-round Presidential elections
Held 11 December 2005. Participation was a fabulous 87.7%, while 3.7% of votes were invalid.
The results¹:
1. Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Socialist, top left on Wiki image) 46.0%
2. Sebastián Piñera Echeñique (neolib billionarire, bottom right) 25.4%
3. Joaquín Lavín Infante (hardline right-wing, bottom left) 23.2%
4. Tomas Hirsch Goldschmidt (hard left, top right) 5.4%

The previous administration under President Ricardo Lagos was the first Socialist government since the fall of Allende on 911 in 1973.