January 17, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 16, 1426

SANTIAGO, Jan 16: Chile president-elect Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist who will be the country’s first female leader, vowed on Monday to shrink the gap between rich and poor that persists in the South American nation despite lower poverty and a thriving economy.

Bachelet, from Chile’s ruling centre-left coalition, won 53 per cent of ballots cast in Sunday’s election while opposition candidate Sebastian Pinera took 47 per cent, the government Electoral Service said.

The 54-year-old medical doctor, who was imprisoned and tortured during the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet dictatorship before living in exile abroad, will be the fourth consecutive president from the centre-left alliance since 1990.

“What is important is that we guarantee decent and dignified work to all Chileans,” Bachelet said at her first press conference as the president-elect.

An agnostic with three children from two relationships, Bachelet benefited from a shift to more secular values in Chile, which has had a reputation historically as one of the region’s most conservative countries.

Bachelet, who is to assume office in March, is expected to be a pragmatic leftist, following in the footsteps of widely popular President Ricardo Lagos.

“We have all been pleased with Mrs President’s capacity to approach people and her empathy, how she cares about the poor and those who are marginalized, and how she cares about children’s well-being through the well-being of the family,” said Francisco Javier Errazuriz, Santiago’s archbishop.—Reuters