Michelle Bachelet won Chile Presidential Elections

Left-wing candidate Michelle Bachelet on 15 December 2013 elected as the Chile President for a second time by a wide margin.

Michelle Bachelet got 62 percent votes against 38 percent votes for Evelyn Matthei, a former minister from the governing centre-right coalition.

Michelle Bachelet, candidate for a centre-left coalition of parties known as Nueva Mayoria, she first served from 2006 to 2010, but under Chile's constitution she could not stand for a second consecutive term.

The major contenders in the presidential election are Evelyn Matthei of conservative Alianza party and Franco Parisi, an independent candidate.

Michelle Bachelet will succeed the present president Sebastián Piñera.The General elections were held in Chile on 17 November 2013 for the president post. The term of the president is for four years.

About Michelle Bachelet

• Michelle Bachelet, candidate for a centre-left coalition of parties known as Nueva Mayoria: 61-year old Bachelet served as Chile's president between 2006 and 2010.
• She is the daughter of a high-ranking air force officer who died from the effects of torture while a prisoner of the military junta led by Gen Augusto Pinochet.
• Michelle Bachelet was herself tortured and spent some years in exile before being allowed to return and finish her medical studies. Bachelet held the post of health minister in Ricardo Lagos' government and was Chile's first female defence minister.
• She became Chile's first female president in 2006, and she had a stunning 84 per cent approval rating when she left office in 2010. In 2010, she was appointed the first director of the newly-created agency UN Women.

About Chile

Chile officially the Republic of Chile is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Chile stretches over 4300 km (2670 miles) north to south, but only 350 km (217 miles) at its widest point east to west. It is bounded on the north by Peru and Bolivia, on its long eastern border by Argentina, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The capital of Chile is Santiago.

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