Chile's president-elect to unveil cabinet in January

President-Elect Michelle Bachelet said Monday she will announce the cabinet lineup later January. "One of the essential tasks I will carry out is building the cabinet, which I will announce in the second half of January," Bachelet told a press conference here. "I want to take the necessary time to select the best people, the men and women who are fully committed to the government's program," she said, adding she wants to carefully "analyze each portfolio" before announcing the names. Bachelet, candidate for the center-left New Majority coalition and former president (2006-2010), won a presidential runoff Sunday with 62 percent of the votes, defeating the conservative ruling-party's Evelyn Matthei, who got just less than 38 percent. Bachelet said she would put together a team to handle the transfer of power from President Sebastian Pinera's government. Bachelet, set to be sworn in on March 11, pledged to "immediately begin working with energy, dynamism and strength." The moderate socialist was reelected with a promise for an ambitious reform program to draft a new constitution, since the existing one was written in the era of military dictatorship. She also vowed to strengthen public education, pension programs and healthcare, all areas that have been largely privatized by Pinera's pro-business government.