Santiago: Socialist Michelle Bachelet will become the first woman to govern Chile, after defeating conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera in Sunday's run-off presidential election.
"Who would have believed five or 10 years ago that Chile would elect a woman president," Bachelet, 54, told thousands of cheering fans at a victory rally in dowtown Santiago.
A former defense minister, Bachelet garnered 53.5 per cent of the vote, seven points ahead of Pinera, and won in all but one of the country's 13 regions.
Bachelet's triumph will extend the rule of the center-left coalition that has governed the South American country since the 1990 collapse of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Her electoral victory had been widely anticipated, though her lead was stronger than expected.
An agnostic single mother of three, Bachelet was not an obvious choice for leadership in this socially conservative Roman Catholic country.
But the economic successes of the current administration evidently played a significant role in her election.
Bachelet has pledged to pursue the policies of outgoing president Ricardo Lagos, a fellow-socialist who won praise for his management of Latin America's star economy.
Her suffering during the Pinochet regime has also won her sympathy from many people in a country still scarred by the 17-year dictatorship.
Her father, a former air force general, died in prison, weakened by torture. She and her mother were held for about two weeks in a notorious torture center.
Bachelet has portrayed herself as an ordinary woman who understands the concerns of ordinary people.
"I work, I take care of my home and I drop my daughter off at school. But I'm also a Chilean who feels a calling to fight for justice and to public service, “ she said.
She once told a biographer that she represented what once was considered in Chile as "all the capital sins: socialist, daughter of my father, separated, not religious."
Bachelet's father, an air force general, was an adviser to socialist president Salvador Allende who was toppled by Pinochet in 1973. Tortured while in prison, Bachelet's father died six months later.
South American women presidents
Michelle Bachelet - elected Chile's first woman leader, 2006
Janet Jagan - elected Guyana's leader in 1997 after the death of her husband, the previous president
Lidia Gueiler Tejada - served as interim president of Bolivia following a coup, 1979-80
Isabel Martinez de Peron - sworn in as interim president of Argentina in 1974 when husband Juan Peron fell ill and died; kept power until 1976
Rosalia Arteaga - briefly acted as president of Ecuador in 1997
(With Agency inputs)
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