Las Elecciones
Today was the presidential election. Well, the first round anyway. Right now, with 82.5 percent of the precincts reporting (and the election called), the results are:
Michelle Bachelet, Concertacion (center-left coalition that has been in power since democracy in 1989): 45.76%
Sebastian Pinera, RN (center-right, "business" party): 25.65%
Joaquin Lavin, UDI (uber-right, uber-Catholic party): 23.31%
Tomas Hirsch, Juntos Podemos Mas (Communist/Humanist/Green coalition): 5.27%
As expected, the woman representing the ruling coalition came in first, but also as expected, there will be a second round against a very competitive candidate. For a summary of the electoral situation and some relevant history, today's (12/11) New York Times article is pretty good. It's interesting though, how all the U.S. press has focused on the likelihood that Chile will have a female president--as in, it's almost certain and isn't that incredible since Chile is such a conservative country.
Whereas the story from the inside is, I think, a little more sobering. Four months ago, Bachelet was polling at around 55%. I didn't really observe it myself, but Taylor says that she was in fact a "phenomenon"--with lots of personal support as a woman, and a woman with an interesting past. But since the election began in earnest, the two candidates on the right gained support and Bachelet's numbers fell, and moreover her campaign strategy seems to have changed--rather than focusing on her personal connection with the voters, her more recent advertisements have emphasized the achievements of the government of which she is the continuation. The current president, who was only barely elected in 1999, has a 60% approval rating. So why did only 45% vote for Bachelet? While it's certainly interesting that Chile might have a woman president, it is ever more notable that it might not. Who knows if its machismo, Catholicsm (as the U.S. articles have pointed out, Bachelet is a divorced agnostic), a lackluster campaign, or people just being more provocative with their first round vote, but it is certainly possible that Bachelet will lose the runoff with Pinera. Of course, there are also good reasons to think she will still win, but the point is that it's far from a sure bet. Although I have no personal stake in the outcome of this election, I will be sad if such a strong female candidate ultimately loses the race, for whatever reason.
As for the voting process itself, I am a little embarrassed to say that I did not leave the house today, so I didn't observe any of it. But I resolve to walk around town a bit on January 15, because I think it's quite interesting--each polling station only has 200-300 voters, all votes are done with a pencil and paper, and they are counted by hand. Men and women vote in different places. Taylor says it's just because when the enfranchised women they didn't want to reassign the men, and they couldn't just add the women because they needed to keep the stations small for hand counting, so they kept them separate. Still, weird. Votes are counted once and can be challenged on the spot, but after that the count is official. So, no chance of a recount tomorrow.
New Spanish word of the day*: derrota=defeat
*as of today, this is a regular feature of my blog
Michelle Bachelet, Concertacion (center-left coalition that has been in power since democracy in 1989): 45.76%
Sebastian Pinera, RN (center-right, "business" party): 25.65%
Joaquin Lavin, UDI (uber-right, uber-Catholic party): 23.31%
Tomas Hirsch, Juntos Podemos Mas (Communist/Humanist/Green coalition): 5.27%
As expected, the woman representing the ruling coalition came in first, but also as expected, there will be a second round against a very competitive candidate. For a summary of the electoral situation and some relevant history, today's (12/11) New York Times article is pretty good. It's interesting though, how all the U.S. press has focused on the likelihood that Chile will have a female president--as in, it's almost certain and isn't that incredible since Chile is such a conservative country.
Whereas the story from the inside is, I think, a little more sobering. Four months ago, Bachelet was polling at around 55%. I didn't really observe it myself, but Taylor says that she was in fact a "phenomenon"--with lots of personal support as a woman, and a woman with an interesting past. But since the election began in earnest, the two candidates on the right gained support and Bachelet's numbers fell, and moreover her campaign strategy seems to have changed--rather than focusing on her personal connection with the voters, her more recent advertisements have emphasized the achievements of the government of which she is the continuation. The current president, who was only barely elected in 1999, has a 60% approval rating. So why did only 45% vote for Bachelet? While it's certainly interesting that Chile might have a woman president, it is ever more notable that it might not. Who knows if its machismo, Catholicsm (as the U.S. articles have pointed out, Bachelet is a divorced agnostic), a lackluster campaign, or people just being more provocative with their first round vote, but it is certainly possible that Bachelet will lose the runoff with Pinera. Of course, there are also good reasons to think she will still win, but the point is that it's far from a sure bet. Although I have no personal stake in the outcome of this election, I will be sad if such a strong female candidate ultimately loses the race, for whatever reason.
As for the voting process itself, I am a little embarrassed to say that I did not leave the house today, so I didn't observe any of it. But I resolve to walk around town a bit on January 15, because I think it's quite interesting--each polling station only has 200-300 voters, all votes are done with a pencil and paper, and they are counted by hand. Men and women vote in different places. Taylor says it's just because when the enfranchised women they didn't want to reassign the men, and they couldn't just add the women because they needed to keep the stations small for hand counting, so they kept them separate. Still, weird. Votes are counted once and can be challenged on the spot, but after that the count is official. So, no chance of a recount tomorrow.
New Spanish word of the day*: derrota=defeat
*as of today, this is a regular feature of my blog
posted by HelenO at
5:21 PM
1 Comments:
After slightly more than 3 months in this country, Helen clearly understands Chilean politics as well as anyone. I'm ready to let her write my dissertation and meanwhile maybe I'll take over the job of travelling, socializing, and keeping up the blog ;-)
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Anonymous, at 5:39 PM
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