Chileans elected Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, as their nation's first woman president, extending the leftists' hold on the presidency while signaling a cultural shift.
SANTIAGO, Chile - Voters in this booming Andean country elected their first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, in a Sunday runoff victory that added to a rising wave of women leaders in Latin America.
The 54-year-old physician, who served as health and then defense minister under popular outgoing President Ricardo Lagos, won 53.51 percent of votes, based on results from 97.52 percent of voting sites.
Billionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera won 46.48 percent of votes and conceded defeat early Sunday night.
Speaking to thousands of people who filled the Alameda, Santiago's main street, Bachelet thanked Chileans for making history Sunday night and promised to use her mandate to usher in ''a new style of government'' marked by a ``new relationship between the representatives and the represented.''
She also paid emotional homage to her father, Alberto Bachelet, an air force general who died in 1974 after he was detained by the country's military dictatorship. Bachelet's mother and three children joined her onstage.
''Who would have imagined 10, 20, even five years ago that Chile would elect a woman president?'' she asked with a voice hoarse from months of campaigning. ``This is not a triumph of one person, of one party, of one coalition. Chile has won again like it has every time.''
Analysts said her win signaled a fundamental political shift in a country known as one of the Western Hemisphere's most conservative countries, where traditional religious values closely guide public policy.
Bachelet has said she is an atheist. She has been long separated from her husband and has raised her three children largely on her own. She also speaks five languages and has studied in the United States and Germany.
She was imprisoned and tortured during the early years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and lived in European exile in the late-1970s.
''This will bring about enormous amounts of change that people aren't even aware of yet,'' said Marta Lagos, regional head of the public research firm MORI. ``This will be a government like her candidacy, more direct, more transparent, more people-oriented.''
Bachelet is the second woman to be elected head of state in South American history. The voters of Guyana elected Janet Jagan, widow of longtime President Cheddi Jagan, in 1997.
Bachelet joins a recent surge of women politicians in Latin America who have succeeded in national politics despite traditional male control over political and economic power.
In neighboring Argentina, first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won a hard-fought race for a Senate seat last October and regularly outshines her husband, President Néstor Kirchner, on the national scene.
In Peru, former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores is running a close race against nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala for her country's presidency.
Bachelet based her campaign largely on internal issues such as boosting education and reforming Chile's pension system. She also argued for more gender equality in Chilean society and pledged to appoint as many men as women to her Cabinet.
With Chile's economy posting 6 percent growth last year, Bachelet has promised to continue Lagos' economic policies, stressing foreign investment and bilateral trade agreements.
Many credit those policies with pulling the country of 18 million people out of recession in 1999. Chile's economy also has benefited from high world prices for copper, its biggest export.
Bachelet's victory extended the center-left Concertación coalition's nearly 16-year hold on the presidency. Bachelet, like the outgoing President Lagos, hails from Chile's Socialist Party, a Concertación member.
Bachelet will take power March 11 with Concertación majorities in both houses of Congress, the first time in the coalition's history, largely due to constitutional reforms that eliminated designated military senators.
''The coalition no longer needs to negotiate with the opposition, which can be a source of danger,'' Ramos said. ``Differences are sure to emerge within this coalition.''
While conceding defeat Sunday, Piñera said his conservative Alliance for Chile coalition was ready to work with Concertación legislators.
Bachelet was elected for a four-year term and cannot serve consecutive terms.
Chile Chooses Bachelet As New Leader
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