Chilean presidential election, 2005–2006

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Chilean presidential candidates: (left to right/top to bottom) Michelle Bachelet, Tomás Hirsch, Joaquín Lavín, Sebastián Piñera

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A presidential election took place in Chile on Sunday, December 11, 2005. None of the four candidates received an absolute majority, thus a runoff election among the top two candidates —Michelle Bachelet from the Coalition of Parties for Democracy and Sebastián Piñera from National Renewal— was held on Sunday, January 15, 2006. Bachelet was victorious with 53.49% of the vote. She succeeded President Ricardo Lagos on March 11, 2006 for a period of four years, after Congress reformed the Constitution in September 2005 and reduced the term from six years.

All citizens of Chile as well as foreigners legally residing in Chile for at least five years, who are 18 years of age or older, were eligible to enroll and subsequently vote in the elections. Enrollment in Chile is voluntary, however, once electors are registered, it is compulsory to vote in each and every election. Although there were a record number of voters (more than 8 million) registered for the election, the total number of votes cast in each round declined in comparison with the past election.

The 2005 Chilean parliamentary election was held in conjunction with the presidential election.

1 Presidential candidates
2 First round
3 Runoff election
4 Election timeline
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Presidential candidates

[edit] Michelle Bachelet (PS)

Bachelet, who led in every major poll, served as Health Minister before President Lagos named her as Chile's first female Defense Minister in 2002. She was supported by the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, which has governed Chile since 1990. The coalition groups four parties: the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Socialist Party (PS), and the Social Democrat Radical Party (PRSD).

Michelle Bachelet (L) and Soledad Alvear (R) hold their first national primary debate in Greater Concepción, Bío-Bío Region, on April 27, 2005

Up until May 2005 two candidates vied for the coalition's nomination: Soledad Alvear (PDC) and Michelle Bachelet (PS). A primary was scheduled to be held on July 31, 2005 to choose the nominee. Political polls in Chile indicated that either candidate would trounce the right-wing Alliance nominee Joaquín Lavín in a two-person race. The political atmosphere changed, however, when another Alianza candidate came to the scene: businessman Sebastián Piñera from the center-right National Renewal. This led, among other reasons, to the withdrawal of Soledad Alvear from the Concertación nomination on May 24, 2005.

[edit] Tomás Hirsch (PH)

Hirsch, a Humanist, ran as his party's nominee for President for 1999 obtaining 0.5%. On this election he ran with the support of the political pact Together We Can Do More, which is made up mainly of the legally constituted Communist and Humanist parties plus other political groups and social organizations. In previous elections the candidates presented independently by the pact's parties were consistently in third place, behind the two major coalitions, and holding poll numbers in the single-digit level.

To elect a single candidate a national public survey was held on May 28, 2005. On June 5, 2005 an assembly elected Humanist Tomás Hirsch as their final candidate. Other pre-candidates included: Julián Alcayaga (Committee for the Defense of Copper) and Nicolás García (Block for Socialism). Two candidates withdrew before the survey and gave their support to Hirsch: Tomás Moulian (Communist) and Manuel Jacques (Christian Left). One candidate withdrew before the assembly: Jorge Pavez (Social Force).

[edit] Joaquín Lavín (UDI)

Lavín ran as the Alliance's nominee for president in 1999, losing in a tight 2000 runoff to Lagos. Considered for a long time prior to the 2005 election as the Alliance's unique candidate, as the contest drew nearer, however, his public persona began to lose credibility, perhaps due to a mediocre mayorship of the Santiago municipality the previous years and his candidacy began to lose steam, to the point it was called into question. RN, the Alliance's other party decided to compete with Lavín with a candidate of their own (Piñera), breaking up the Alliance's unity in the election.

[edit] Sebastián Piñera (RN)

Piñera was proclaimed a candidate by its party on May 14, 2005. His nomination caused discomfort within the Independent Democrat Union (UDI—its fellow coalition party member), as both parties were supposed to support Lavín as the single coalition candidate. A primary proposed by UDI to elect a single candidate representing the Alliance was rejected by RN. Piñera's nomination was welcomed by the public and won quick support in opinion polls.

[edit] Rejected candidacy

The independent Mapuche candidate Aucán Huilcamán registered his nomination on September 12, but it was rejected three days later by the Electoral Commission (Servicio Electoral) due to his failure to obtain the minimum number of signatures required by law for an independent candidacy. Huilcamán appealed using the argument that in the past parliamentary election there was a law created specifically to help the candidates of the Christian Democracy Party re-register their candidacies. After the support given to Huilcamán by other candidates, the government sent a bill to Congress, with immediate discussion, to extend the time of registration; a bill that would have also helped 17 other candidacies that were rejected by the Electoral Service. Nonetheless the bill was rejected by a lack of quorum, denying Huilcamán a place in the ballot.

[edit] First round

[edit] Opinion polls

June/July 2005 opinion poll results

October/November 2005 opinion poll results

Opinion polls released after Sebastián Piñera's entrance and Soledad Alvear's withdrawal showed Michelle Bachelet led the right-wing candidates (Piñera and Joaquín Lavín) by a wide margin, but below the 50% plus 1 vote needed to win the election, a situation that would lead to a runoff in which, according to the same polls, she would comfortably defeat any of the two right-wing candidates. Some analysts commented that in some of these polls Bachelet would indeed have obtained an absolute majority in the first round, if blanks were discarded and undecided votes were evenly distributed among candidates. However, later opinion polls released nearer the election showed a decline of Bachelet in favor of Piñera and Tomás Hirsch, showing more clearly that the election would be decided in a runoff.

In the graphic shown on the right, there are a series of opinion polls released in the last two months prior to the election. If blanks and nulls are discarded, and the results of each candidate are averaged, the results obtained were: Bachelet 47.34%, Piñera 23.64%, Lavín 22.92%, Hirsch 6.1%, which is accurate within 1.8% to the actual results of the election. A remarkable prediction, even if statistically meaningless.

[edit] Debates

There were two scheduled debates, both including all four candidates. A third televised debate was dismissed by the respective campaign teams. However, during the second debate, Tomás Hirsch said he was open to a third debate.

The first debate, titled Foro Presidencial: Chile 2005, organized by the Latin American station CNN en Español and the local Canal 13, took place on October 19, at 10 p.m., at Espacio Riesco in Santiago. It ran for one hour, giving each candidate ten minutes to answer seven questions, giving priority to national issues. There was no studio audience. It was hosted by Glenda Umaña (CNN en Español) and Constanza Santa María (Canal 13).

The second debate took place on November 16, at 10 p.m., at the CasaPiedra venue in Santiago. It was organized by Anatel (National Television Association), and was broadcast by Canal 13, TVN, Megavisión and Chilevisión, with TVN in charge of production. Running for one hour and 40 minutes, a question was asked to each candidate by a panel of four journalists. The four candidates were seated behind desks on stage, instead of standing at podiums as they had done in the first debate.

[edit] Results

President Ricardo Lagos casting his vote

The first government announcement regarding election results came at 6:30 p.m. local time (21:30 GMT), and included information from around 12% of polling stations counted. Subsequent preliminary results were announced during the day by the Interior Ministry undersecretary and published on a special Internet site. These results indicated that the election was to be decided in a runoff on January 15, 2006, in which Michelle Bachelet would face Sebastián Piñera. Official and final results, validated by the Election Qualifier Tribunal (Tricel), were published on the Diario Oficial (official newspaper) on December 27, 2005 and made the runoff election official.

On election day, at 9:30 p.m. local time, before the third preliminary results were announced, Joaquín Lavín conceded a second-place defeat in the election and said he would support Sebastián Piñera in the runoff election. Later in the day, JPM candidate Tomás Hirsch said he would nullify his vote in the upcoming runoff; an opinion which was objected by the pact's Communist wing, which said they would support Bachelet if five proposals delivered to her were accepted and incorporated into the candidate's government program; these proposals dealt with changing the electoral system and granting workers more rights.

Official and final results.

Ballot number	Candidate	Party/ Coalition	Votes	%	Result
1	Sebastián Piñera Echenique	RN	1,763,964	25.41	Runoff
2	Michelle Bachelet Jeria	PS/CPD	3,190,691	45.96	Runoff
3	Tomás Hirsch Goldschmidt	PH/JPM	375,048	5.40
4	Joaquín Lavín Infante	UDI	1,612,608	23.23
	Total valid votes		6,942,041	100
	Null votes		180,485	2.5
	Blank votes		84,752	1.18
	Total votes		7,207,278	100
	Total voters enrolled		8,220,897	12.33% abstention

Source: Tricel [1]