Santiago, Dec 14 - Conservative millionaire Sebastian Pinera and ruling-party candidate Eduardo Frei Sunday led the first round of Chile's presidential election, according to the first preliminary official results.

Pinera got 44.67 percent of the votes to Frei's 32.08 percent, with more than 12 percent of the ballots counted, Chile's electoral commission said.

If the final official results confirm this trend and none of the candidates gets more than half the votes Sunday, Pinera and former Chilean president Frei (1994-2000) would clash in a runoff vote Jan 17.

According to preliminary official results, independent leftist Marco Enriquez Ominami got 17.78 percent of the votes, to leftist Jorge Arrate's 5.45 percent. (dpa)