Pinera leads Chile election at partial count - electoral agency

SANTIAGO - 18 December 2017: Conservative Sebastian Pinera took an early lead of more than seven percentage points in Chile's presidential election on Sunday, Chile's electoral agency Servel said.

With 9.55 percent of ballots counted, Pinera had 53.6 percent of votes while center-left Alejandro Guillier had 46.4 percent in the runoff vote.

Chileans are voting for a successor to President Michelle Bachelet in a race that will determine if the world's top copper producer stays on its center-left course or joins other Latin American nations turning to the right in recent years.