Santiago: Chile's outgoing leftist President, Michelle Bachelet, has upped her support of her chosen successor after he came second in weekend first-round elections behind a conservative billionaire.
Bachelet announced her ministerial-level spokeswoman Carolina Toha, was resigning to help the struggling bid by Eduardo Frei, a former president who faces an uphill battle to beat the poll favorite, right-wing tycoon Sebastian Pinera.
Toha was leaving to "assume new and important responsibilities in Eduardo Frei's campaign," Bachelet said.
Several high-level public officials were also reportedly working for Frei while on vacation.
The strategic moves followed Frei's relatively poor showing in Sunday elections.
He garnered just 29 percent of the vote, while 44 percent went to Pinera, a longtime rival of Bachelet's whom she beat in a 2006 run-off to snatch the presidency.
If Pinera, 60, wins in a knockout round against Frei, 67, on January 17 it will spell the end of two decades of left-wing rule over one of South America's most prosperous countries.
Since 1990, the end of General Augusto Pinochet's 17-year military dictatorship, Bachelet's Concertacion coalition has held power in Chile, the world's top copper exporter.
Sunday's elections suggested that era could be coming to an end.
While the presidential race headed to a duel between Pinera and Frei, the legislative contest saw Concertacion lose control of the lower house of Congress to the right-wing alliance by a few seats, though it managed to take over the Senate.
The split legislature could mean discomfort for the new president, slowing up the passage of bills and demanding concessions.
The January decider for the presidential contest is far from clear-cut. The left-wing vote, fragmented among several candidates in the first round, could yet rally behind Frei in an effort to deny a return of the right.
Pinera -- the owner of one of Chile's four television networks and a major stakeholder in Latin America's biggest airline LAN Chile and a football club -- has sought to portray himself as a compassionate conservative ready to continue some of Bachelet's policies if he wins.
Bachelet, 58, was barred from seeking reelection under her country's constitution.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 11:12