Early results in Chile's presidential elections put billionaire Sebastian Pinera ahead, but without the majority needed to avoid a second round.

智利总统选举初步结果显示，亿万富翁塞巴斯蒂安·皮涅拉领先，但是没有达到能够避免第二轮选举的投票人数。

Sebastian Pinera is reportedly leading the count  

The centre-right businessman has 44% of the vote, with 60% of ballots² counted.

He is up against three left and centre-left candidates - Eduardo Frei, Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate.

BBC correspondents say the signs are that the country is likely to shift to the right, after 20 years of centre-left rule.

If no-one manages to get 50% of the vote in the first round, the two leading candidates will go through to a run-off决定性选举 on 17 January.

The early results show that Mr Frei has 30%, with the other two candidates trailing badly.

Mr Frei, 67, is seeking his second term as president after an absence of 10 years.

Around eight million Chileans have been voting in the election.

Mr Pinera, 60, owns a television channel, a stake in Chile's most successful football club and has millions of dollars in investments.

He has campaigned on a tough law-and-order宣扬法制的 ticket and has also vowed³ to use his business know-how⁴ to reactivate使恢复活力 the economy, promising⁵ Chileans an annual growth rate of 6% for the next four years.

The BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago says he looks certain to win Sunday's ballot¹.

The big question, our correspondent says, is whether Mr Pinera can reach the crucial 50% mark which would secure outright完全的，彻底的 victory and give Chile its first conservative government since 1990, when strongman Gen Augusto Pinochet finally relinquished⁷放弃，让渡 power.

This is the second time Mr Pinera has run for the presidency⁸ at the head of a centre-right coalition⁹.

In 2006, he lost to the extremely popular outgoing Socialist¹⁰ president, Michelle Bachelet.

But under the constitution she cannot stand for re-election, and her candidate, Mr Frei, is struggling to emulate¹¹仿效 her popularity.

The third candidate is Marco Enriquez-Ominami, a 36-year-old independent who has emerged from nowhere and split the centre-left vote.

He says Chile needs a new face and new ideas in the presidential palace, after two decades of the same coalition.

The fourth candidate, and rank outsider, is Jorge Arrate, a veteran Socialist who has the support of Chile's Communist Party.

The centre-left has been split by in-fighting, and many Chileans appear to be ready for a change, our correspondent says.

If Mr Pinera is successful, it will mark the first time in 51 years that the conservatives have taken power in Chile via the ballot box.