Article on Presidential Elections in Chile
May 29, 2009 15:20:46 GMT
Post by gringalais on May 29, 2009 15:20:46 GMT
Chile's coming presidential election
Winds of change
May 28th 2009 | SANTIAGO
From The Economist print edition
The Concertación is disconcerted
FOR an outgoing government, an approval rating of over 50% ought to spell another term of office. Yet a recent poll found that one in five supporters of the Concertación, Chile’s centre-left governing coalition, expects it to lose December’s presidential election. These fears are not groundless. For the first time since the Concertación took office in 1990, an opposition candidate—in this case, Sebastián Piñera, a wealthy businessman—leads the polls. His victory is by no means assured but, says Marta Lagos of the local office of MORI, an opinion-pollster, his “image of triumph” will be hard to surmount.
The Concertación oversaw Chile’s transition to democracy after the long dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and has delivered stability, growth and social progress. But it has failed to promote a new generation of leaders, and the old ones have been around for too long. Senator Eduardo Frei, its nominee for December’s vote, has been president before, in the 1990s. But even within the coalition he has only lukewarm support. He was “what was left” after Ricardo Lagos, Chile’s president from 2000 to 2006, and José Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, decided not to run, says a coalition politician.
Mr Frei faces an additional challenge from a young Concertación congressman, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, whose popular support is as high as 14% in some polls. Many within the coalition have warmed to him too. “They may be disciplined in insisting publicly on their support for Frei, but part of their heart is with Marco,” admits one of the older generation of Concertación leaders.
Mr Enríquez-Ominami’s attraction lies partly in the charisma he inherited from his father, a founder of the socialist Movement of the Revolutionary Left in the 1960s, who was shot dead in 1974 by the Pinochet regime’s security forces. But it also reflects his call for openness on such touchy issues as abortion—still banned in Chile even where the mother’s life is at risk—and his pragmatism on the state’s role in the economy.
Mr Enríquez-Ominami’s chances of becoming Chile’s next president are low. But his surging popularity is making some within the coalition wonder if, facing their toughest election yet, they need a less lacklustre candidate to take on Mr Piñera.
Winds of change
May 28th 2009 | SANTIAGO
From The Economist print edition
The Concertación is disconcerted
FOR an outgoing government, an approval rating of over 50% ought to spell another term of office. Yet a recent poll found that one in five supporters of the Concertación, Chile’s centre-left governing coalition, expects it to lose December’s presidential election. These fears are not groundless. For the first time since the Concertación took office in 1990, an opposition candidate—in this case, Sebastián Piñera, a wealthy businessman—leads the polls. His victory is by no means assured but, says Marta Lagos of the local office of MORI, an opinion-pollster, his “image of triumph” will be hard to surmount.
The Concertación oversaw Chile’s transition to democracy after the long dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and has delivered stability, growth and social progress. But it has failed to promote a new generation of leaders, and the old ones have been around for too long. Senator Eduardo Frei, its nominee for December’s vote, has been president before, in the 1990s. But even within the coalition he has only lukewarm support. He was “what was left” after Ricardo Lagos, Chile’s president from 2000 to 2006, and José Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, decided not to run, says a coalition politician.
Mr Frei faces an additional challenge from a young Concertación congressman, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, whose popular support is as high as 14% in some polls. Many within the coalition have warmed to him too. “They may be disciplined in insisting publicly on their support for Frei, but part of their heart is with Marco,” admits one of the older generation of Concertación leaders.
Mr Enríquez-Ominami’s attraction lies partly in the charisma he inherited from his father, a founder of the socialist Movement of the Revolutionary Left in the 1960s, who was shot dead in 1974 by the Pinochet regime’s security forces. But it also reflects his call for openness on such touchy issues as abortion—still banned in Chile even where the mother’s life is at risk—and his pragmatism on the state’s role in the economy.
Mr Enríquez-Ominami’s chances of becoming Chile’s next president are low. But his surging popularity is making some within the coalition wonder if, facing their toughest election yet, they need a less lacklustre candidate to take on Mr Piñera.
