Chile's general elections kicked off on Sunday
morning to choose a new president. Following is a brief introduction to three leading presidential candidates.
-- Sebastian Pinera Echenique, candidate for the Coalition for Change, gained 44.1 percent
of support in the latest pre-election polls.
Born in December 1949 in Santiago, the billionaire businessman is the partner of several
most important enterprises in Chile, including the airline LAN Chile, the publisher Los Andes,
Arauco Park and television channel Chilevision.
Pinera studied economics in Chile's Catholic University and gained master's degree in Harvard University.
He had served as Chile's ambassador to Belgium and to the Unite Nations and entered the
Senate from 1990 to 1998.
He was President of the National Renewal Party from 2001 to 2004. He ran for the presidential elections of 2005 as the candidate of the National Renewal Party, finishing in second place with 25.4 percent of the votes.
This time, Pinera centered his presidential campaign of offering a "change" to end the
center-left governments of the country.
He married with Cecilia Morel Montes and has four children.
-- Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, former President of Chile from 1994 to 2000, is the candidate
of the ruling Concert of Parties for Democracy (also called Concertacion), winning 31 percent of support in the latest pre-election polls.
Frei, son of late President Eduardo Frei and founder of the Christian Democratic Party
(PDC), was born on Jun. 24, 1942, in Santiago.
He has a degree on Civil Engineer at the University of Chile and took courses of advanced
management in Italy in 1968 and returned home in 1969 as a water engineer.
Frei, who began his political career at university as a student leader and joined the PDC in 1958, participated actively in his father's successful president campaign in 1964.
He become the PDC presidential candidate in 1988 and elected Senator for Santiago in
December 1989. From November 1991 to May 1993 he was President of the PDC.
Frei was the founder and President of the "Eduardo Frei Montalva" fund from 1982 to
1993 and become President of Chile from 1994 to 2000.
He was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008 and is currently Senator for Los Rios
region.
During his administration, he signed a number of trade agreements to improve the
country's exports. He also made Chile join the Common Market of the South (Mercosur),signed a Free Trade Agreement with Canada and joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
He has promised during his campaign to continue with the economic policies of the
previous administrations and to expand the social integration policies launched by current
President Michelle Bachelet.
-- Marco Enriquez-Ominami Gumucio, a filmmaker and politician who is running as an
independent candidate, gained 17.7 percent of the votes in the pre-election opinion polls.
Enriquez-Ominami, son of a Chilean leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR),was born in June 1973 in Concepcion, Chile. Two months after he was born, his family was exiled in France due to political reasons and he returned to Chile in 1986.
He has a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Chile in 1995.
In 1996, he attended a workshop for film director in Paris. He also worked as executive
director of Rivas and Rivas producing company in 1998, later he had engaged in film.
He was elected deputy leader of the Socialist Party from 2005 to 2009.
In 2009, he resigned the Socialist Party to run for Chile's presidency as an independent.