Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is poised to return to office after winning the first round of presidential elections. Bachelet took close to 47 percent in Sunday’s vote, more than 20 points ahead of her closest rival, but just short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. That vote will be held next month. Bachelet served from 2006 to 2010 as Chile’s first female president. She has run on a platform of tackling income inequality and reforming a constitution dating back to the regime of General Augusto Pinochet, when she herself was a political prisoner. In the congressional vote, the Chilean activist Camila Vallejo was elected to a seat in parliament. Vallejo helped lead Chile’s student uprising in 2011, which saw massive protests for affordable university education and deeper structural changes.