Chile: Bachelet triumphs in Chile election but faces runoff

[Judi Lynn]

Chile: Bachelet triumphs in Chile election but faces runoff

Leftist candidate Michelle Bachelet will have to wait until a second-round runoff next month to become Chile’s next president.

By: Reuters, Published on Sun Nov 17 2013

SANTIAGO— Leftist candidate Michelle Bachelet was the clear winner in Chile’s presidential election Sunday, although she will have to wait until a second-round runoff next month to seal her victory.
With nine candidates running, the vote was fractured and Bachelet, seeking her second term as president, fell just short of the 50 per cent she needed for an outright first-round victory.

Bachelet, who led Chile between 2006 and 2010 as its first female president, clinched just under 47 per cent of the vote. Runner-up Evelyn Matthei of the ruling right-wing coalition was second with 25 per cent.The two will now go head-to-head in a runoff Dec. 15.

Bachelet is promising an ambitious program of tax and education reform to tackle inequality in the top copper exporting country, while Matthei has pledged to largely continue the business-friendly policies of the current administration of President Sebastian Pinera.

Bachelet’s eventual victory looks assured, as most supporters of the largely anti-establishment minor candidates — who took around 28 per cent of the vote between them — will likely throw her their support in the second round, or else abstain.

More:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/11/17/chile_bachelet_triumphs_in_chile_election_but_faces_runoff.html

[bemildred]

1. Three to one for the "leftist" is not a bad outcome, if that proves to be the case in the runoff. nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bachelet wins Chile vote, but reforms in peril

Bachelet wins Chile vote, but reforms in peril
Posted: Nov 18, 2013 12:31 AM CST Updated: Nov 18, 2013 9:02 AM CST

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Michelle Bachelet nearly doubled her conservative rival's votes in the first round of Chile's presidential election, but her center-left coalition fell short of the gains in Congress needed to keep many of her promises.

The moderate Socialist, who was Chile's first female president from 2006 to 2010, bested nine candidates in Sunday's vote and is widely expected to win a Dec. 15 runoff over her childhood friend, Evelyn Matthei. With nearly all ballots counted Monday, Bachelet had 47 percent of the vote to Matthei's 25.

Bachelet's New Majority coalition appears to have the votes in Congress to raise taxes, but lacks the super-majorities of 60 percent to change the electoral system or 67 percent to change the constitution imposed by the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Education reform would require 57 percent approval in Congress, and it appears that Bachelet has that number as long as four student protest leaders newly elected to the legislature go along with the rest of the coalition.

More:
http://www.nbc4i.com/story/23994719/bachelet-wins-chile-vote-but-reforms-in-peril