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Chilean presidential election, 2009–10

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January 17, 2010
  
2013 →

51.61%
  
48.39%

3,591,182
  
3,367,790

Chilean presidential election, 2009–10

The first round of the Chilean presidential election of 2009–2010 was held on Sunday December 13, 2009. Based on the two-round system, since none of the candidates secured the absolute majority needed to take the presidency outright, a run-off between the two most-voted candidates —center-right Sebastián Piñera and center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle— was held on Sunday, January 17, 2010. Piñera, who won the runoff with about 51.6% of the vote, succeeded Michelle Bachelet on March 11, 2010. Parliamentary elections took place on the same day.

Contents

Chilean politics is dominated by two main coalitions: the center-left Concert of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia), composed of the Christian Democrat Party, the Socialist Party, the Party for Democracy, and the Social Democrat Radical Party; and the center-right Alliance for Chile (Alianza por Chile), composed of the Independent Democratic Union and National Renewal. The Concertación selected former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle as their candidate, while the Alianza chose former presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera, who is supported by the newly created Coalition for Change electoral group. The far-left Juntos Podemos Más pact selected former Socialist Party member Jorge Arrate as its candidate. Another former Socialist party member, deputy Marco Enríquez-Ominami (MEO), ran as independent.

Summary of candidates

The following four were the official candidates for President:

Party pre-candidates

Each Concertación party selected its own pre-candidate for president. Only Frei and Gómez submitted their candidacies before the January 26, 2009 deadline.

Primary results

The primary was carried out on April 5, 2009 in the Maule and O'Higgins regions. Frei became the single Concertación candidate by beating Gómez with an advantage above 20%, cancelling the need for further regional primaries.

Final results.

Primary results

The election to define the sole Juntos Podemos candidate was carried out on April 25, 2009 in Santiago. Arrate beat Hirsch and became the single Juntos Podemos candidate.

Final results.

Declined candidacies

  • Eduardo Artés (PC (AP)): He was proclaimed as a Juntos Podemos Más pre-candidate by the Communist Party (Proletarian Action) on December 7, 2007. However, on July 26, 2008, the PC (AP) left the Juntos Podemos Más pact, accusing them of abandoning their founding principles in light of the pact's electoral deal with the Concertación for the upcoming October municipal elections. He quit his candidacy in July 2009. He said his candidacy was just an opportunity to present new ideas to the country, as going through with the candidacy would be too economically onerous.
  • Leonardo Farkas (Ind.): A mining businessman. On December 5, 2008, he announced he was giving up his presidential candidacy.
  • Pamela Jiles (Ind.): Journalist and television presenter. She announced her candidacy in February 2009 through a column in The Clinic magazine. On September 4, 2009 she stepped out of the race in support of Navarro. In the same election, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the lower chamber of Congress.
  • Luis Molina Vega (Ind.) A civil engineer from Tomé. Molina stepped out of the race in July 2009, due to low support.
  • Alejandro Navarro (MAS): Navarro used to characterize himself as a leader in the "dissident" faction of the Socialist Party, which harshly criticized what they called the "neoliberal" economic model, supporting instead Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Despite his involvement in a scandal due to his participation in a protest organized by the Unitary Workers Central where he attacked a policeman, with the possibility of being expelled from the Senate being considered, Navarro declared himself to be a presidential candidate in 2008. In November 2008, he quit the Socialist Party to form a new party called Broad Social Movement (MAS). He said his candidacy was necessary to "stop Piñera from winning in the first round", and still considered himself a Socialist. The MAS party proclaimed him its candidate on November 11, 2008; the party, however, was still open to stage a primary between all leftist candidates that were not part of the Concertación. Navarro has proposed to hold the primary in April 2009. On May 5, 2009 Navarro said he would step out of the race and support Arrate if polls released from then to September show the Juntos Podemos Más candidate having an advantage of seven points over him. He didn't rule out Arrate then supporting Enríquez-Ominami, if his candidacy was the strongest. Navarro was proclaimed as the official MAS candidate on July 25, 2009 with the support of other minor left groups. He submitted his candidacy to the Electoral Service on September 14, 2009. On September 22, 2009 Navarro withdrew his candidacy and gave his support to Enríquez-Ominami.
  • Adolfo Zaldívar (PRI): The former president of the Christian Democratic Party and a Senator at the time of his nomination, lost the last internal PDC primary to Alvear. He is the brother of senator and former Interior Minister Andrés Zaldívar. He was expelled from the PDC in December 2007, later becoming part of the Regionalist Party of the Independents (PRI). He announced his intention to run as president representing that party, and was proclaimed so on April 26, 2009. This decision was ratified on August 29, 2009. He stepped out of the race on September 14, 2009, just hours before the deadline for submission.

    • Opinion polls

    List of opinion polls released within a year of the election. Only responses from persons registered to vote are shown.

    First-round scenarios

    DK/NR: Don't know / No response.

    Frei vs. Piñera

    DK/NR: Don't know / No response.

    Enríquez-Ominami vs. Piñera

    DK/NR: Don't know / No response.

    Arrate vs. Piñera

    DK/NR: Don't know / No response.

    Enríquez-Ominami vs. Frei

    DK/NR: Don't know / No response.

    Debates

    The first debate was organized by TVN and took place in Studio #9 at the station's main headquarters in Santiago. It was broadcast live on September 23, 2009 at 10:40 p.m and included all four candidates. A poll published by Ipsos the following day, showed that Enríquez-Ominami, Arrate and Piñera were each considered to have had the best performance over the rest, with 29-30% of support, while Frei's showing only had the support of 9%. Frei was seen by 45% as the worst performer, followed by Piñera (37%), Arrate (10%) and Enríquez-Ominami (5%). Another poll by La Segunda found 23% thought Piñera had won the debate, followed by Arrate (21%), Enríquez-Ominami (15%) and Frei (9%). 31% thought none had won the debate.

    The second debate was organized by Archi (Radio Broadcasters Association) and Mayor University. It took place at 8:30 AM on October 9, 2009. It was a radio-only debate, though some local 24-hour news channels broadcast live some parts of it. A poll carried out by Mayor University showed Piñera had won the debate by 41%, followed by Enríquez-Ominami (22%), Arrate (19%) and Frei Ruiz-Tagle (17%).

    There was an online debate on November 4, organized by Terra and Radio Cooperativa. Only Arrate was present after the other three candidates declined to attend. Frei and Piñera had confirmed their presence in May, while Enríquez-Ominami backed down on the same day of the debate.

    A debate to discuss regional issues took place on November 6 at 9 AM in Talca's casino. It was organized by the National Press Association (ANP) and was attended by all four candidates.

    A fifth debate took place on November 9 at Canal 13's studios in Santiago, which was broadcast live at 10 PM. All four candidates were present. This debate was notable because the candidates were able to ask questions to one another and freely talk to each other.

    The last debate was organized by the National Television Association (Anatel) and broadcast live on November 16 at 10 PM by all terrestrial television stations. All candidates attended. There was no audience present.

    First round results

    Official and final results.

    Note: There are 34,348 ballot boxes in the country in 34,325 polling places (23 polling places are mixed-sex, with separate ballot boxes for men and women.)

    Campaign

    On December 20, 2009, the Juntos Podemos Más coalition gave his support to Eduardo Frei's candidacy, after the former president agreed to include a number of policies into his government program. Two days later, Jorge Arrate also gave his full support to Frei. On January 13, 2010 Enríquez-Ominami held a press conference to state he would vote for Frei, although he did not say his name. He had previously said that voting for Piñera would be a regression and voting for Frei would not be an advancement.

    Debates

    There was a single debate between the two candidates. It was organized by Anatel and broadcast at 10 PM by all terrestrial television stations on January 11, 2010.

    Results

    Official and final results.

    Note: There are 34,348 ballot boxes in the country in 34,325 polling places (23 polling places are mixed-sex, with separate ballot boxes for men and women.)

    Timeline

  • September 13, 2009: Deadline to enroll to vote in the upcoming elections.
  • September 14, 2009: Deadline to register candidacies at the Electoral Service (Servel).
  • September 14, 2009: Electoral campaign begins.
  • October 5, 2009: Draw supervised by Servel to assign a ballot number to each candidate.
  • November 13, 2009: Electoral advertisement period starts.
  • December 10, 2009: Electoral advertisement period ends.
  • December 13, 2009: Election day. Electoral campaigning ends.
  • December 13, 2009: First preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Minister at 6:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. UTC), including 4,342 out of 34,348 ballot boxes (12.64%).
  • December 13, 2009: Second preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Minister at 8:03 p.m. local time (11:03 p.m. UTC), including 20,595 ballot boxes (59.96%).
  • December 13, 2009: Third preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Minister at 10:56 p.m. local time (1:56 a.m. UTC), including 33,756 ballot boxes (98.28%).
  • December 14, 2009: Fourth and final preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Minister at 11:05 a.m. local time (2:05 p.m. UTC), including 34,133 ballot boxes (99.37%).
  • December 21, 2009: The Electoral Service (Servel) publishes preliminary results based on the examination of election certificates (actas de escrutinio) by the Tellers' Colleges (Colegios Escrutadores) meeting on December 14, 2009, including 34,263 out of 34,348 ballot boxes (99.75%).
  • December 29, 2009: The Tricel publishes the final results of the first round election on the Official Gazette.
  • January 3, 2009: Electoral advertisement period for runoff election starts.
  • January 7, 2009: Ballot number is assigned to each candidate according to their position in the first draw.
  • January 14, 2009: Electoral advertisement period ends.
  • January 17, 2010: Date of presidential run-off. Electoral campaigning ends.
  • January 17, 2010: First preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Ministry at 6:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. UTC), including results from 20,711 out of 34,348 ballot boxes (60.30%).
  • January 17, 2010: Eduardo Frei concedes the election to Sebastián Piñera at 6:44 p.m. local time (9:44 p.m. UTC).
  • January 17, 2010: Second preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Ministry at 7:40 p.m. local time (10:40 p.m. UTC), including results from 34,056 ballot boxes (99.15%).
  • January 18, 2010: Third and final preliminary results are announced by the Deputy Interior Ministry at 11:00 a.m. local time (2:00 p.m. UTC), including results from 34,252 ballot boxes (99.72%).
  • January 29, 2010: The Election Qualifying Court (Tricel) officially proclaims PIñera as President-elect.
  • January 30, 2010: The Tricel publishes the Act of Proclamation on the Official Gazette.
  • February 3, 2010: The Tricel publishes the final results of the runoff election on its website.

    • References

    Chilean presidential election, 2009–10 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA