
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993                   TAG: 9312120044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SANTIAGO, CHILE                                LENGTH: Short

PRO-GOVERNMENT CANDIDATE LIKELY WINNER IN CHILE

The candidate for the pro-government coalition, Eduardo Frei, was headed to a landslide victory in Saturday's presidential election, according to an exit poll broadcast by the state television.

The poll, taken by the private organization Adimark, gave Frei 63.8 percent of the vote, followed by Arturo Alessandri, the candidate for the right-wing opposition, with only 21.8 percent.

Four other presidential candidates - one rightist and three leftists - had 4.8 to 0.8 percent, according to the poll.

The winner will succeed President Patricio Aylwin, who took office in 1990, putting an end to the 16 1/2-year rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Saturday's election for president and Congress could further distance the government from its military past.

Frei has promised to amend the constitution, which bars the president from firing Pinochet and other top military commanders. Alessandri opposes changing the constitution.

Frei, 51, was the clear front-runner in the presidential race. He is a member of Aylwin's Frei Christian Democratic Party and was backed by the same eight-party center-left Coalition for Democracy that gave Aylwin a landslide victory.

Voting proceeded peacefully despite reports of two bombs at southern Santiago suburbs during the night before polls opened, officials said.

by CNB