Poll: Chile Likely to Elect Female President

The leading candidate in Chile's election, Michelle Bachelet, still looks set to become the nation's first female president despite waning support.

With just over a week to go before the balloting, a poll published Thursday indicates the socialist candidate has 39 percent of the vote. Her support was down just over nine percentage points from a poll in September.

The survey indicates Ms. Bachelet's closest competitor in the December 11 vote is right-leaning candidate Sebastian Pinera, with 22 percent - one percentage point higher than before.

Chile requires a runoff election if no candidate takes more than 50 percent of the vote. Thursday's poll results suggest Ms. Bachelet would prevail over Mr. Pinera by a margin of 47 percent to almost 40 percent, in a second round of voting.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-12-01-voa71.cfm

Except the US, when is it our turn to be this progressive?

Just a few weeks ago Bachelet was near 50% and it was possible she would win in the first election. And in the run off, she was at least 30 points above both Sebastián Piñera and Joaquín Lavín.

I really hope she wins, otherwise Chile will be one of the very few countries in South America with a right wing government.