(CNN) -- A conservative billionaire businessman and a former center-left president will face off in a runoff election in Chile's presidential race, based on official early results released Sunday. 

With more than 98 percent of polling stations counted, billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera led ex-president Eduardo Frei with 44 percent of the vote to Frei's 30 percent, Chile's interior ministry reported. 

"This is a victory for all the Chileans who want change," Pinera said Sunday night. 

Frei began campaigning for the second-round immediately, asking in a speech for the supporters of the two other candidates who had their presidential ambitions dashed to join his cause. 

Frei said if he is elected, women and young people will have an important role in his government. 

He explicitly asked for those who voted for Marco Enriquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate, who were eliminated in Sunday's ballot, to vote for him in the runoff. 

In a concession speech, Enriquez-Ominami said that he would not endorse either candidate. 

The winner will follow the footsteps of a very popular president, Michelle Bachelet, who will be leaving office with high approval ratings for steering the country through the global economic downturn, and promoting progressive social reforms. Under Chile's constitutional term limits, a president cannot run for a second consecutive term. 

Bachelet endorsed Frei, a member of her same left-leaning coalition, but another leftist candidate who ran as an independent -- Enriquez-Ominami -- made an impressive run, pulling in 20 percent of the vote and splitting votes for the ruling party. 
does she have high approval ratings?
Michelle Bachelet, who will be leaving office with high approval ratings