Chile kicks off presidential run-off vote

More than 13.5 million Chileans went to the polls Sunday to choose their new president in a run-off vote between two female candidates. Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) and are expected to close at 6:00 p.m. (2100 GMT). Results are due shortly after voting ends. Michelle Bachelet, of the center-left New Majority coalition and former president, and Evelyn Matthei, candidate of the ruling Coalition for Change, are running for the country's top office for the next four years. They went to Sunday's run-off as no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election last month. On Nov. 17, Bachelet and Matthei garnered 46 percent and 25 percent of the vote respectively, becoming the two front-runners among nine candidates in the race. The winner in the run-off will succeed President Sebastian Pinera on March 14, 2014.