Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Michelle Bachelet won election in Chile, becoming the nation's first woman president after pledging to help students, workers and retirees benefit from the copper-rich country's economic growth.
Bachelet, 54, a former defense minister who leads the coalition that ousted Augusto Pinochet from power in 1990, garnered 53.5 percent of the vote with almost all ballots counted, the government said. Opposition candidate Sebastian Pinera conceded after winning 46.5 percent in today's run-off.
The next president will take power with the highest credit rating in Latin America, a seventh year of economic expansion under way and a record budget surplus because of a surge in prices for copper, Chile's top export. Bachelet, a Socialist party member and the second woman elected president in South America, said she will use that revenue to help almost 3 million poor in a country where workers earn an average of $522 a month.
Chileans ``must know that the society in which they live protects them,'' Bachelet told thousands of supporters. ``My commitment is that in 2010, we will have consolidated a system of social protection.'' She said that she will improve access to education and health care and provide for the elderly.
Chileans, who honked car horns in capital after the vote was announced, gave the coalition its fourth consecutive victory in presidential elections. Thousands of Bachelet supporters filled the streets, waving banners and cheering in the capital.
The victory was 1 percentage point wider than a Jan. 5 forecast by pollster Mori Chile SA.
Road to Presidency
In the first-round election last month, Bachelet won 46 percent of the vote, short of a majority needed for a victory. Pinera, a former senator whose family owns a $681 million stake in Lan Airlines SA, Chile's largest carrier, garnered second place with 26 percent of the vote.
Today, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, 67, who can't run in this election, was applauded by voters after casting his ballot.
``Her's is a historic triumph,'' Lagos said in the capital of Santiago. ``We are a new Chile, having a woman president shows that.''
Under his leadership, the country signed trade accords with the U.S., Europe and China. The $103 billion economy expanded at least 6 percent for a second year in 2005, according to government estimates.
Lagos will end his six-year term in March with a 75 percent approval rating, according to the Mori Chile poll.
``The coalition has shown they can govern,'' said Alicia Bonifaz, a 23-year-old law student who voted for Bachelet today.
The coalition won a majority in both the nation's Lower House and Senate in elections last month.
Dictatorship
Bachelet will take office more than three decades after, as a 23-year-old medical student, she was arrested and tortured during Pinochet's dictatorship. Her father, a general, died in jail less than a year earlier after being tortured on suspicion he opposed the 1973 military coup.
``She's a strong woman,'' said Maria Eugenia Jana, a retired art teacher who voted for Bachelet. ``She's had a full life, one with sacrifice. She has suffered.''
Bachelet said her experiences influenced her to study defense policy. In 2002, she became defense minister, the first woman to hold that post in Chile. During her campaign, Bachelet pledged to pick women for half of her Cabinet posts.
As defense minister, Bachelet told military commanders assembled before their new chief that she was a woman, a socialist, separated, and agnostic, ``all the sins together,'' Bachelet joked at a news conference in November.
`Scrutiny'
Bachelet, a trained pediatrician, is separated from her husband and raised three children in a mainly Catholic country where divorce was legalized for the first time in 2004 and where men and women vote in different buildings.
The candidate, who has short brown hair and wears glasses, has won support from women who identify with her background, said Patricio Valdivieso, a professor at the Pontific Catholic University of Chile.
``She's a regular woman,'' said Carolina Cruz, a computer programmer, adding, ``she'll have to fight down sexists.''
Juan Lindau, a professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, said that Bachelet's career suggests that she ``has become extraordinarily adept at handling sexism, given her long career in the still largely male political world of Chile.''
She will ``face greater scrutiny because of her gender and will consequently need a strong first year in office,'' Lindau said.
Record Surplus
Bachelet becomes the second elected female president in South America after Janet Jagan, who was elected in Guyana after the death of her husband, President Cheddi Jagan.
Other women who have reached the presidency in South America, without being elected to the post, include former congresswoman Lidia Gueiler in Bolivia; former Argentine Vice President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron; and in Ecuador former Vice President Rosalia Arteaga.
Bachelet has pledged to increase pension benefits for the elderly, provide nationwide access to pre-school and ensure poor working mothers have childcare.
In her first year in office, she said she will send a bill to congress to ensure that more workers are covered at a lower cost under a private pension system put in place during the dictatorship. She also will seek to end Pinochet-era election rules blocking smaller parties from gaining congressional seats.
Markets
Bachelet will keep in place rules requiring the government to save part of its windfall when prices for copper surge, said Francisco Lepeley, who manages $1.77 billion in fixed-income securities at MetLife Chile Seguros de Vida SA.
The election won't affect the country's currency or stock markets tomorrow, Lepeley said in a telephone interview from Santiago.
``The market had already incorporated this,'' Lepeley said after the election's results were announced.
Like prior coalition governments, Bachelet will seek to increase the country's trade, Lepeley said.
Some voters said that Pinera, part of the opposition National Renovation party, as a businessman was better suited to run the country. He declined at a news conference last year to disclose the value of all his holdings.
``Chile is a country with several free trade agreements so we need a leader who understands business,'' David Rodriguez, 63, said, standing in the shade today after voting in the port city of Vina del Mar.
Exports
The next president of Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, will take over as a 54 percent increase in copper prices in 12 months bolsters the nation's $103 billion economy.
The government had a budget surplus last year equal to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product -- the largest among Latin America's major economies, according to Goldman, Sachs & Co.
``She won't have to complain about resources,'' said Juan Chavarria, who manages $170 million at Bandesarrollo Administradora General de Fondos in Santiago.
Bachelet's challenge will be improving education and workers' skills to ensure the nation competes globally, Chavarria said. Almost 19 percent of Chileans live in poverty.
``We are climbing a ladder while others take the elevator,'' Chavarria said. ``We make progress, but others make it faster.''
A 10 percent gain by the Chilean peso against the dollar in six months also is making the nation's exports of salmon, fruit and wine more expensive for consumers in the U.S., the country's biggest market. And while Chile has increased exports with trade agreements, it's still dependent on copper, Chavarria said.
Chile has a long-term foreign currency rating of A from Standard & Poor's and a Baa1 rating from Moody's Investors Service.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Walsh in Santiago at hlwalsh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Laura Zelenko in New York at lzelenko@bloomberg.net
Michelle Bachelet at a TV debate in October 2005


Michelle Bachelet became Chile's first elected female President Sunday when her rival, Sebastian Piñera, conceded defeat after trailing by six points.
Bachelet, a member of the center-left group Concertación, previously served as both Health Minister and Defense Minister.

Outgoing President Ricardo Lagos called it a "historic day" and phoned Bachelet to congratulate her.

At 21:30 local time (00:30 UTC of Monday), Bachelet has said: 
::''"Who had ever thought, my friends? Who thought 20, 10 or 5 years ago that Chile would elect a woman as a President? That became possible, because the citizens wanted it to. Thank you, Chile, thank you for your millions of votes. (...) My commitment as President of Chile will be to walk along you one more stretch in this big Avenue of Freedom we have been opening"''

Ms. Bachelet supporters are reportedly celebrating her victory.