Preliminary results in Chile's presidential election on Sunday indicated a likely run-off.

Socialist Michelle Bachelet was leading with 44.76 percent of the vote based on a count of 12.7 percent of the votes, according to the tally published by the government Electoral Service.

It showed rightist candidate Sebastian Pinera was in second place with 26.70 percent of the vote, followed by Joaquin Lavin, also from the right, with 23.52 percent.

Bachelet is not expected to win more than 50 percent of the valid votes cast, which means she will likely face her closest contender in a run-off election on Jan. 15.

So far over 804,000 votes have been counted from 4,190 polling stations across Chile.

The presidential election of Chile started earlier on Sunday as voters cast their ballots to choose a successor to President Ricardo Lagos.

Veronica Michelle Bachelet, candidate for the popular ruling center-left Democracy Parties Coalition and leading with a 41-percent support in a recent poll, is most likely to succeed President Lagos and become Chile's first woman president.

Other candidates include Sebastian Pinera, candidate for the opposition right-wing National Renewal party; Joaquin Lavin Infante, candidate for the Independent Democratic Union; and Thomas Hirsch Goldschmidt, candidate for the Humanist Party and Communist coalition.

Meanwhile the Chileans voters are also expected to hold a congressional election.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2005)