Well ahead on presidential election that marked decisive shift in Chilean politics

Reuters was well ahead on the Jan 17 presidential election, beating Bloomberg by 8 minutes with the first media projection showing conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera leading with 51.3 percent of the vote, and by 30 seconds with the first official results showing Pinera winning. Our pre-vote analysis that Pinera was tipped to win a very close race was bang on, and contrasted with Bloomberg’s take that it was a dead heat election that could go either way. Reuters also led Bloomberg by 40 seconds with news leftist ex-president Eduardo Frei had conceded victory to Pinera. The story was rounded out with a detailed interview from Pinera’s most likely pick for Finance Minister, detailed analysis on the political and economic policy implications of Pinera’s win as well as what it means for Chile’s linchpin mining sector: that Pinera will struggle to sell part of state copper giant Codelco as pledged, given that Congress is split and will likely water down any Pinera reforms.