Michelle Bachelet Favored To Win Presidency In 2013 Chile Election
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/17/michelle-bachelet-chile-election-_n_4291953.html?utm_hp_ref=latino-voices
SANTIAGO,
Chile (AP) —
Chileans were preparing to return Michelle Bachelet to the presidency on
Sunday, hoping she can fulfill promises to reform a dictatorship-era system
they blame for keeping the working classes poor and indebted to the privileged
few.
Chile is
the world's top copper producer and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment
and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America.
But millions of its citizens have taken to the streets in recent years, venting
their frustration over the huge wealth gap between the rich and poor and a
chronically underfunded education system.
Many voters blame policies imposed during Gen. Augusto
Pinochet's dictatorship for keeping wealth and power in very few hands. His
regime privatized natural resources and many government functions and ended the
central control and funding of public schools.
Bachelet, 62, is a former political prisoner, pediatrician,
defense secretary and Socialist Party stalwart who is a centrist at heart.
She left office with sky-high approval ratings after her
2006-2010 presidency despite failing then to bring about major changes in
society. But this time, she's taken up the protesters' cause, vowing major
changes in taxes and education to reduce the wealth gap.
Bachelet and her closest rival on Sunday, Evelyn Matthei,
were childhood friends and daughters of generals who found themselves on
opposite sides after Chile's 1973 coup, when Matthei's father ran the military
school where Gen. Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death for remaining loyal to
ousted President Salvador Allende.
The last survey by Chile's top pollster CEP found 47 percent
of declared voters going for Bachelet, suggesting she has a good chance at an
outright majority when voters who didn't reveal their preferences to pollsters
cast ballots. Matthei got 14 percent in the poll, which had a 3 percentage
point error margin. Seven other candidates trailed, although independents
Franco Parisi and Marco Enriquez-Ominami were gaining ground on the right and
left.
Chileans also will choose 120 members of the lower House of
Congress and 20 out of 38 Senate seats on Sunday.
Unfortunately for Bachelet, her New Majority coalition won't
be able to secure more seats unless it wins at least two-thirds of the votes in
each district, under Pinochet's "binomial" electoral system, which
was designed to frustrate change.
"You almost feel sorry for her because she's going to
be stuck between the future and the past," said Peter Siavelis, a
political science professor at Wake Forest University
and author of "Democratic Chile:
The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition".
"There all these demands in the streets for
constitutional reform but she's facing a Congress that's going to be elected by
the binominal elections system," Siavelis said. "There's not going to
be a majority there. So the influence of the dictatorship is going to impact on
her reforms."