Michelle Bachelet	Sebastian Pinera

    ¡¡SANTIAGO, Dec. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The second vote count in Chile's presidential election has indicated a runoff between socialist Michelle Bachelet and rightist Sebastian Pinera, according to the government electoral service.

    Both candidates sounded upbeat after Sunday's voting.

    Bachelet, of the ruling coalition for democracy, won 45.68 percent of the counted ballots. Pinera, from the right wing National Renewal party, obtained 25.83 percent of the vote.

    Joaquin Lavin, also a right-winger from the Independent Democratic Union, secured 23.32 percent.

    Under the country's reformed constitution unveiled in September 2005, a presidential candidate needs an absolute majority to be declared the winner. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the two leading candidates will contest a runoff election on Jan. 15, 2006.

    The winner will succeed President Ricardo Lagos on March 11, 2006.

    So far, nearly 4 million votes have been counted from 18,622 polling stations across the country. Eight million Chileans cast their ballots Sunday to elect the president, 120 deputies and 20 senators.

    Bachelet is confident of winning the second round. "According to our projections, we will get more than 45 percent," said Jaime Mulet, Bachelet's campaign manager.

    Pinera is also optimistic. His campaign manager told reporters that the prospect of a second round "makes us very happy."

    The elections took place without serious incidents, although in one poor area in Santiago, a right wing candidate was jeered and pelted with tomatoes and eggs.

    If elected, Bachelet would become the country's first female president and the fourth woman to win a direct popular election as president in the Americas after Nicaragua's Violeta Chamorro, Panama's Mireya Moscoso and Guyana's Janet Jagan.

    It would also be the fourth consecutive win for a Democratic Coalition leader. The Coalition won its first election in 1990, after the military regime of General Augosto Pinochet was voted out of power in a people's plebiscite in 1988. Bachelet was Chile's first woman defense minister. She also served as health minister.

    Pinera, one of Chile's richest men, controls the LAN Chile airline and private television station Lan Chile. He campaigned on a platform of pension reform, decentralization and continued economic growth.

    Under the reformed constitution, the presidential term is four years, instead of the previous six years. Enditem