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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A nationwide radio network said socialist Michelle Bachelet appeared to have won a solid victory in Chile’s presidential runoff election on Sunday. She would become the country’s first woman president.
Radio Bio Bio based its projection on reports from polling stations of about 180,000 votes counted, out of nearly 8 millions cast. It said Bachelet apparently received almost 53 percent of the vote to Sebastian Pinera’s 47 percent.
Bio Bio has affiliate radio station in most of the country’s main cities.
More below the fold …
Both Bachelet and Pinera called the election “a great day” as they cast ballots at separate schools in the same upper-class neighborhood in the capital, Santiago.
Backers of outgoing President Ricardo Lagos were already thinking of the next presidential election four years away as he voted amid supporters’ chants of “2010!”
Lagos, who has deftly balanced his socialist ideology with market-oriented economics, enjoys an approval rate above 70 percent but is constitutionally prohibited from seeking immediate re-election.
If Bachelet wins, she would become Chile’s first female president and continue the dominance of the ruling coalition that took power at the end of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
She won the first round of voting on December 11 with 46 percent, but was forced into a runoff because she failed to win an outright majority. Pinera was second with 25 percent.
In spite of their different political backgrounds and ideologies, both candidates to succeed Lagos have outlined strikingly similar basic goals, promising to continue the two-decade-long free-market policies that have made Chile’s economy one of the healthiest in the region.
A Leader Making Peace With Chile’s Past
SANTIAGO, Chile, Jan. 15 – Michelle Bachelet, who was elected Sunday as president of this male-dominated, prosperous and deeply religious nation of 16 million, is a woman and an agnostic, a guitar-strumming child of the 60’s, a former exile who spent part of her childhood in the United States, and a physician, who has never before held elective office.
Running as a Socialist on a platform that promised “change with continuity” and showcased her warmth and affinity with ordinary people, Ms. Bachelet, a fair-haired, vibrant 54-year-old, won more than 53 percent of the vote, according to the official tally. She made few promises beyond “social inclusion” – vowing to better meet the needs of women and the poor – and preserving Chile’s economy, the most dynamic in Latin America, and the country’s close ties with the United States.
“Violence ravaged my life,” Ms. Bachelet said Sunday night, in an impassioned victory speech to a jubilant crowd gathered on the main downtown avenue here. “I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred.”
Excellent NYT article with a full coverage of her life’s experiences, her years living in the U.S., the Allende overthrow, her imprisonment and torture under Pinochet, her family’s exile to Australia and Europe, the years spend in Communist DDR, the lifting of the exile, and her return to Chile working as a pediatrician after finishing medical school.
Upon her return to Chile in 1979, as the expulsion order against her mother was being lifted, Ms. Bachelet finished medical school, specializing in pediatrics and public health. Though she graduated near the top of her class, her family name and political affiliations made it difficult for her to find employment. She ended up working at a clinic financed by Sweden that treated children from families that had been victims of torture and political repression.
In 1994, after having worked in AIDS and epidemiological programs, she became an adviser to the Ministry of Health. But she retained her familial fascination with military affairs, and in 1996 enrolled in a program in strategic studies at the national war college.
Ms. Bachelet excelled there, and was invited to study at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington. She did so in 1997, and after her return, she went to work in the Defense Ministry and was also elected to the political commission of the Socialist Party, specializing in defense and military issues.
Results, can be followed on the official Chilean elections site (and compared to earlier elections).
The political landscape in Chile
– The ruling Concertación Democrática centre-left block is a four-party alliance (from Socialists to Christian Democrats) and follows a moderate line;
– the main opposition group Alianza consists of a post-fascist centrist and a hard-right party, and champions both social and economic conservativism;
– the Juntos Podemos Más hard-left block contains the communist and humanist parties, and opposes the ruling alliance on grounds of concessions to neoliberalism;
– there are also a number of independents and candidates only part of a block, but not a party.
Results of the first-round Presidential elections
Held 11 December 2005. Participation was a fabulous 87.7%, while 3.7% of votes were invalid.
The results¹:
1. Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Socialist, top left on Wiki image) 46.0%
2. Sebastián Piñera Echeñique (neolib billionarire, bottom right) 25.4%
3. Joaquín Lavín Infante (hardline right-wing, bottom left) 23.2%
4. Tomas Hirsch Goldschmidt (hard left, top right) 5.4%
The previous administration under President Ricardo Lagos was the first Socialist government since the fall of Allende on 911 in 1973.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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Excellent Writing Larry Johnson!
Will Evo Morales follow Hugo Chavez's model?● Evo Morales Wins, The Bird Shit War & Bush’s Nightmare ◊ by Chris Kulczycki
Sat Dec 24th, 2005 at 01:55:28 AM PDT
Breaking News ::
Chili Moves to the Left ¶ Michelle Bachelet 1st Female President!
So … after Chavez and Venezuela, the Bush cabal got what they deserve:
Lulu Brazil, Socialist in Uruqua, Morales in Bolivia and a self-supporting Argentina freed from the IMF noose.
Only through U.S. and France meddling in Haiti, Bush got himself another country in chaos today.
The signing ceremony was attendedby Spain's defence minister (l)
Spain moved to the left. Another First Woman was elected as president in an African country – Ms Sirleaf in Liberia. Germany moved to the right but Angela Merkel is off to a great start on the international stage, an Islamist with extreme views got elected in Iran and insurgents running wild across the globe.
● Europe on CIA Detainees and Guantanamo
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I took this picture when Pinochet had to give power in 89 (I believe).
On the way to Argentina, I flew and had a stop over in Paraguay. I had to get my 2 puppies out of the plane because there was a few hours delay. So I was pretty much on the runway. About 300 yards was waiting Stroessner’s plane to leave the country. He had been deposed.
I spent about one and a half years in Argentina, and when I left to the US, we crossed to chile to fly back. It was on the days that Pinochet was being kicked out. Whe happened to meet some women were I was staying in Argentina, who had offered us to stay at their place. When we got there, they asked us if we wanted to go to the stadium for the inaguration of Alwin. It was such a party !!
Where we were, we had the Trosquists to our left, and the Communists to our right. That was an experience I will never forget.
I guess I should become a frequent flier 🙂
A good call by Radio Bio Bio, thanks Oui.
Ms Bachelet’s opponent, Conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera, has conceded defeat. AFP/ABC(Aust) story here.
Let’s watch what happens in Chile.
Hi Oui..good diary and the update on another country in South America. I imagine all this is sending bushco into apoplectic fits of anger that they aren’t able to control all those lefties down there.
In spite of their different political backgrounds and ideologies, both candidates to succeed Lagos have outlined strikingly similar basic goals, promising to continue the two-decade-long free-market policies that have made Chile’s economy one of the healthiest in the region.
How then can this be a move to the left?
What Chile has been doing for the past 15 years is what many South and Central American countries did for much of the 19th and 20th centuries – traded power back and forth between two parties whose policy differences couldn’t be discerned without a microscope.
That might have something to do with the fact that every time the various countries have tried to change government pathways, they’ve had to use armed revolts to get past the feudalists at the top, and those have routinely resulted in little visits from the USMC or the CIA…
The people can elect all the leftists they want but until they’re out from under the economic and military shadow of Tio Sam, it means nothing. But at least they’re still trying.
now, you two, stop that!!!! :o) You have made me hungry…;o)
I hate to be a stickler, but it’s not Chili, but Chile.
You might want to change your headline.
Beat me to it. Have a 4.
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du Chili – Chili – Chile
In short – you’re right. Thanks!
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
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President elect Ms. Bachelete, saild that the relation with Argentina was “strategic” for her her and for Chile. She also stated that it’s foreign policy a would prioritize the region.
She also said that the FTAA is not incompatible with the MERCOSUR.
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Bush neocon policy failed everywhere, from North Korea to Iran and the Arab nations in the Middle East. Bush – Powell – Rice lost all the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union and got kicked out of Uzbekistan. China and Russia have tightened their grip on these satellite nations bordering strategic oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea,
The twist with the Ukraine and Georgia were the latests where the Kremlin – Putin – and Gazprom got their way and secured the trasport pipelines through the whole region. Putin mirrored the openings Bush took to grap executive power in the States, to his own possibilities with domestic politics of the Doema, Russian oil billionaires and neighboring totalitarian states. Putin’s implementation was much better than Bush, even China wasted no time to sign multi-billion LNG import contracts with Iran and invested heavily in Central Africa Chad and Sudan, South America in Argentina and Venezuela.
Bush and neocon cabal got their asses kicked everywhere and are much worse off than at the start five years ago. No wonder Bush spoke of his oil addiction, because he failed miserably to conquer any foreign oil fields. His only success was the invasion and occupation of Haiti, except there is no oil to be gained. VP Cheney probably wanted to vault from Haiti into Chavez territory of Venezuela, but the overthrow failed!
● Iran – Pakistan – India Pipeline
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Democracy Failures In Middle East Under Bush ≈
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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In my diary today ::
Mr. Chávez’s comments came on the same day that senior Bush administration officials, who have been relatively silent after weeks of constant verbal volleys by the Venezuelan leader, harshly criticized his governing style. Warning that Mr. Chávez is consolidating power at the expense of democracy, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld went so far as to compare Mr. Chávez to Hitler:
Mr. Rumsfeld said, referring to the Cuban leader and the new president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. “It concerns me.”
Mr. Negroponte also said:
Mr. Chávez’s populist government was seeking closer economic and military ties with Iran and North Korea, while meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring countries.
Little, if anything, has ever been publicly raised about ties to North Korea, and Mr. Negroponte did not offer evidence. But Mr. Chávez, whose country has the hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, has met with Iranian leaders and has vigorously defended Tehran’s goal of developing a nuclear program.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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