With over 99 percent of ballots counted, Pena had 42.7 percent of the vote, a lead of more than 15 points over his center-left opponent Efrain Alegre, a 60-year-old lawyer from the Concertacion coalition.

The election was for both the president and legislature, with 4.8 million of the country's 7.5 million people eligible to vote. Alegre, who led in opinion polls before the election, conceded defeat, stating that "the effort was not enough."

Pena called for unity and consensus in his victory speech, saying that the task of leading the country after years of economic stagnation and fiscal deficit was not for a single person or party.

Despite their differences on economic and international policies, both candidates were socially conservative, opposing abortion rights and gay marriage in the predominantly Catholic nation. (ILKHA)