**Chileans are voting in a presidential run-off, with a conservative candidate challenging the centre-left that has run the country for 20 years.**Businessman Sebastian Pinera won 44% of the vote in last month’s first round, well ahead of Eduardo Frei of the governing Social Democrats.
But opinion polls suggest the outcome of the second round will be very close.
Chile’s last conservative leader was military ruler Gen Augusto Pinochet, who stepped down in 1990.
Mr Frei, 67, is seeking his second term as president after an absence of 10 years.
Mr Pinera, 60, owns a television channel, a stake in Chile’s most successful football club and has millions of dollars in investments.
He has campaigned on a tough law-and-order programme and has vowed to use his business know-how to reactivate the economy.
This is the second time Mr Pinera has run for the presidency at the head of a centre-right coalition.
In 2006, he lost to the outgoing Socialist president Michelle Bachelet. Under the constitution she cannot stand for re-election.
She will leave office in March with a high approval ratings as a result of policies to tackle poverty and use Chile’s all-important copper exports to offset the effects of the global economic crisis.
Mr Frei has promised a continuation and deepening of many of her policies.