Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei took most of the votes in Sunday’s first round election.

None of the nine candidates in Chile’s presidential election that held on Sunday, November 17, 2013, was able to secure an outright win, forcing the two leading candidates to go in for a second round on December 15, 2013.

Former President and moderate Socialist, Dr Michelle Bachelet, 61, took 47 per cent of the vote as against 25 per cent for her main rival, former childhood friend and neighbour, Evelyn Matthei, 60, the BBC reported yesterday, November 18, 2013. The main election issue was the economy. Chile's economy is among the healthiest in Latin America, but there have been calls for the wealth to be fairly distributed.

The Voice of America, VOA recalled that Bachelet left office with 84 per cent approval rating after her 2006-2010 presidency.  The constitution allows Presidents to serve more than one term, but not consecutively. Bachelet was backed in Sunday’s vote by her New Majority alliance of Socialists, Christian Democrats and Communists.

She is the daughter of a high-ranking Air Force officer who died from torture in prison under the military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Bachelet was also tortured and spent some years in exile before being allowed to return home to complete her medical studies. She held the post of Health Minister in Ricardo Lagos' government and was Chile's first female Defence Minister. In 2010, she was appointed the first Director of the newly-created agency UN Women.