Bachelet triumphs in Chile election but faces runoff
Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:01
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REUTERS: Leftist candidate Michelle Bachelet was the clear winner in Chile’s presidential election on 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% 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% of the vote. Runner-up Evelyn Matthei of the ruling right-wing coalition was second with 25%.
The two will now go head-to-head in a runoff on 15 December.
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% of the vote between them, will likely throw her their support in the second round, or else abstain.
A physician by training and moderate socialist by conviction, Bachelet has promised 50 reforms in her first 100 days if she returns to power.
Her flagship policy is an increase in corporate taxes to 25% from 20% to pay for education reforms that include a gradual move to free higher education. She also wants to rewrite the dictatorship-era constitution.
