An inked finger is evidence that this woman has voted. Photos courtesy of author.
Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first female president, is finishing her term, which means Chile’s election season is about to get underway.
Bachelet will not run for re-election, as Chilean law prevents presidents from campaigning for a consecutive term after their first four year term has lapsed.
As the next election cycle gets underway, the question on everyone’s lips is, will the centrist-socialists (Concertación) pull off the vote again for a fifth consecutive win, or will the political right (Alianza) be swept in on an upset?
Chilean law requires that the president must win with more than 50% of the popular vote, and the 2005 election results had no clear majority, so the country held runoff elections. Bachelet (Concertación) won 53.49% of the runoff vote, and left Sebastian Piñera (Alianza) in second place, with four years to fortify his position for the December 13, 2009 elections.
The presidential palace.
Since the dictator Augusto Pinochet left power and democracy was restored to Chile in 1989, the nation has held four presidential elections, each of which has resulted in a win by the centrist-socialist Concertación group.
This year’s election sees six candidates gearing up for their campaigns: Sebastián Piñera, Eduardo Frei, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, Jorge Arrate, Alejandro Navarro, and Adolfo Zaldívar, with Piñera, Frei and Ominami as the frontrunners.
Of these candidates, first-round interviews of the public conducted by national newspaper La Tercera in late April indicated that Piñera (Alianza), the economist and investor who is responsible for bringing credit cards to Chile, is in the lead, with 30% of voters planning to cast their vote for him.
Frei (Concertación), who recently claimed himself to be heir to Bachelet’s presidency and said the Concertación always wins because it promotes progress for the nation and its people (reported on Radio Biobio, August 23, 2009), is in second place with 25%.
Dark horse Ominami (Concertación) who comes further from the left, has already garnered 21% of the intended vote according to the survey. He’s the son of the leader of Chile’s Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MIR) is just 36 years old.
Campaigining in Chile will not begin in earnest until one month before the election, when flag-waving, sandwich-boards, bulletins and telephone campaigns are legally permitted. Chile has universal suffrage, and voting is compulsory for registered voters (with some exceptions), who are subject to fines if they do not comply.
Approximately 8.2 million Chileans were eligible to vote in last year’s election, and those having reached the age of majority may register to vote this year by September 13. The election will be held December 13.
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9 Comments... join the discussion!
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Does anybody think that Chile will be the next country to become a developed country?
All of their economic indicators such as HDI and GDP per capita has been increasing at a good rate. There is room for improvement such as education but I’ve always felt confident Chile would be next
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It’s hard to answer that qustion without konwing what your indicators of “developed” are. Chile has an astonishingly high literacy rate, high internet penetration, no one dies of starvation (though there is a large economic rift between the haves and the have-nots). The nation has more than seven million cell phones in circulation, in a country of only 16 million people, has a well-developed travel and health infrastructure, potable water, no death penalty, near universal health care, etc. We even have high incidences of “western diseases” like ulcers, high blood pressure and diabetes and a growing obese population.
Seems like we’re (mostly) on the right track.
anyone else wondering about this? I’d be happy to answer questions. I’ve been here for five years.
cheers!
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That is what I was thinking, what defines a developed country?
If I read all of the characteristics of a country that you have mentioned without knowing which country you were talking about, I would think that this country was developed.Most sources still consider Chile a developing country. I don’t know why, but Chile has just fascinated me for some unknown reason
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There’s quite a bit that’s truly fascinating here, and a lot of old world/new world contrasts, complete with class struggle. In Santiago in twenty minutes I can get (by an ultra modern metro) from a market mewling with baby cats, tripping over people selling instant coffee by the cup from a carafe of hot water they wear strapped to their back, and where donkey milk is sold, up to “Sanhattan,” Santiago’s glass-topped “skyscraper” area, where the Ritz Carlton Hotel is located.
You should come and see it for yourself.
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Michelle Bachelet is the first female president in Latin America? What about Mireya Moscosa in Panama (1999-2004)? What about Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in Nicaragua (1990-1996)?
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Spanish-speaking South America, and Chile, yes. Not the Americas, nor South America, then.
Thanks for setting the record straight.
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actually chile is already considered a lower developed nation. Very good infrastructure and in terms of education, its standard is quite high. I lived in both chile and australia, my life evenly split between these two glorious lands, and till today i still found my education in chile was to a much higher standard. The gap between rich and poor however is massive, and it is a big struggle to get higher levels of education if you are not in a high class thus generations of families not moving up the scale. It definately is moving in the right direction.
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Off the top of my head, some things that I believe keep us from being a developed country:
- The HUGE income gap between the richest and poorest segments of out population, with in itself translates into a HUGE gap in education and very little possibilities of social mobility.
- While Chile is (allegedly) a secular country, the (Catholic) church still has a LOT of power on policy-making and politics in general. Even if we HAVE had 5 consecutive left-wing governments… and I say “left-wing” lightly. I’m not saying “legalize abortion/civil unions/whatever NOW!”. I’m merely saying, at the very least, PLEASE let us discuss these issues openly, seriously and OFFICIALY, not in passing as part of a campaign-speech that gets trampled on as soon as X is elected.
I DO think we’re on the right track, but we’re not quite there yet IMO.
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