Governing coalition 'invisible' after presidential primaries in Chile.

AutorWitte-Lebhar, Benjamin

The race to replace Chile's outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet, is in full swing following a pair of primary elections--one for the conservative Chile Vamos (Let's Go Chile) coalition, the other for Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA), a recently formed leftist affiliation--that proved to be particularly propitious, most analysts agree, for the president's immediate predecessor, Sebastian Pinera (2010-2014).

As expected, Pinera, a billionaire businessman, won the Chile Vamos primary, held July 2, by a comfortable margin, netting 58% of the votes cast versus 26% for Manuel Jose Ossandon, an independent senator, and 15% for Felipe Kast, a deputy with the center-right Evolucion Politica (Political Evolution) party. Pinera is now the only rightist candidate going into Chile's presidential election, which takes place Nov. 19. A runoff, if necessary, would be held Dec. 17.

What did come as something of a surprise to most observers was voter turnout. Some 1.4 million people participated in the Chile Vamos contest, roughly 600,000 more than in the coalition's last primary, in 2013. Pinera alone received more votes than the right's 2013 primary candidates--Pablo Longueira and Andres Allamand--combined. Enthusiasm for the process was all the more unexpected given that it coincided with a major soccer match, the final of the Confederations Cup tournament in Russia between Chile and Germany.

"Our candidacy goes well beyond Chile Vamos. It's for all Chileans of good will," Pinera told supporters that night. "Those who competed today were opponents. Those who will compete in November are our adversaries. And the enemies we want to defeat are poverty, crime, and low pensions."

Pinera is hoping to repeat the success he enjoyed in the 2009-2010 election, when he beat former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994-2000) of the centrist Partido Democrata Cristiano (Christian Democratic Party, PDC) to become Chile's first conservative leader since dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) (NotiSur, Jan. 22, 2010).

Election rules barring incumbents from immediate reelection kept Pinera out of the 2013 contest, which the center-left Bachelet--herself a former president (2006-2010)--won in a landslide (NotiSur, Dec. 20, 2013). The two competed against each other directly in 2005-2006, when Bachelet beat Pinera in a runoff to become Chile's first woman president (NotiSur, Jan. 20, 2006).

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Voter turnout was significantly lower for the other presidential...

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