Since the return of democracy to Chile more than two decades ago, this country has been regarded by many as an example of social and economic stability in Latin America.
With an average annual growth rate of 5.5%, some of the highest salaries in
the region and low unemployment figures, Chile is seen as a role model for
developing countries by Western economists.
So why would many Chileans tell pollsters that they are planning to vote for
someone who advocates radical change rather than continuity in the presidential
election on 17 November?
The answer may partly lie in the mass student protests of 2011.
Education dilemma
The protests, the largest since the regime of Gen Augusto Pinochet came to an
end in 1990, showed that behind Chile's economic success lay an increasingly
frustrated society.
Chile has the most expensive higher education system in Latin America, with
students and their parents struggling to pay university fees running into the
tens of thousands of dollars.
According to Pamela Figueroa, director of the School of Politics at Chile's
Central University, the protests have shown that a reform of the education
system is crucial to fighting Chile's inequality.
"It's the biggest challenge for the next president," she says.
The disparity between Chile's top earners and the country's poorest is bigger
than in any other member nation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development.
Figures show that the average income of the wealthiest 10% is 27 times higher
than that of the poorest 10%.
And every day more Chileans are speaking out against this disparity.
"Chileans know their civil and economic rights now, and they know they are
empowered to change things they are not satisfied with," Ms Figueroa
explains.
Discontent
Public protests, from students, environmentalists, indigenous, and gay rights
groups, have become more and more frequent in a way not seen in Chile since the
1990s.
So how do the two main candidates in Sunday's election plan to fulfil the
expectations of this empowered middle class and of a vocal student movement?
"We need an education reform, social programmes and a labour agenda that
fights the big gap between those who have bigger salaries and those who have
lower ones," Michelle Bachelet of the centre-left New Majority coalition told
the BBC.
Ms Bachelet, who already served one term as president from 2006 to 2010, said
it was time Chile entered "a new era".
She advocates a radical overhaul of Chile's fiscal policy, raising corporate
dues while lowering personal income taxes.
She argues this would help fight inequality and, at the same time, fund an
ambitious free public education system.
Her programme is popular with low-income and middle-class families.
Front runner
Recent polls suggest the 62-year-old paediatrician is the favourite in
Sunday's election with 47% of those polled saying they would vote for her.
According to that same poll, her main rivals could trail well behind, with
just 15% of those surveyed saying they would vote for candidates other than Ms
Bachelet.
Ms Bachelet's main rival is 60-year-old former labour minister Evelyn
Matthei, from the party of current President Sebastian Pinera, who is barred by
the constitution from running again
Ms Matthei came to the campaign rather late, only being chosen as the
candidate for the right after two other candidates dropped out.
Polls suggest the daughter of a former air force general may struggle to make
it into the second round, but Ms Matthei says she is determined to put up a good
fight.
She has warned that Ms Bachelet's plans for a fee-free public education
system would blow a hole in the country's budget.
Ms Matthei advocates a "competitive education system" in which poor families
can get public funding to enrol their children in school and those teachers with
the best results receive subsidies.
She also favours lowering taxes for businesses, and promises to create more
employment opportunities as a way of boosting equality.
Scepticism
If there is something Ms Bachelet, Ms Matthei and the remaining seven
presidential candidates agree on, it is the need to reform Chile's constitution.
"Chile is now a consolidated democracy, but its institutions go back to the
years of Augusto Pinochet's military regime," political analyst Pamela Figueroa
explains.
"There is a growing concern that the current institutions don't take into
account that Chile now has a more diverse population with more social and
economic rights than it used to have 30 years ago," she adds.
Most of the candidates, including Michelle Bachelet, are pushing for a
totally new constitution, while Ms Matthei favours minor reforms to the current
text.
What all candidates have been facing during the campaign is a strong dose of
scepticism towards Chile's political class.
And, as a former president, Ms Bachelet in particular had to confront those
who felt let down by her during her first term in office.
In La Pintada, a poor neighbourhood of the capital Santiago, one student is
willing to give her one more chance.
"I agree we need a fair distribution of wealth, we need better education, but
she lied to us once," he says referring to Ms Bachelet's failure to get
education reform passed in Congress during her last term as president.
"I hope she keeps her promises this time!"