Chile Election Campaign Ends with First Woman President Likely

Agence France-Presse

Thursday 08 December 2005

Chile's presidential election campaign ended ahead of a vote that could elect the country's first woman president - the daughter of a general killed during Augusto Pinochet's brutal regime.

Far ahead of her rivals, with 40 percent voter support in recent polls, Michelle Bachelet, of the ruling center-left Concertacion coalition, is favoured to win Sunday's election.

But Bachelet cancelled her final rally after three young supporters were killed in a bus accident.

President Ricardo Lagos made the twice-separated mother-of-three Chile's first female defense minister, a post Bachelet, 54, gave up six months ago to run for the top office.

The daughter of an air force general who was tortured to death during Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, and trained as a doctor, Bachelet has campaigned for national reconciliation with the military that backed the now disgraced dictator.

Sunday will be the fourth presidential election since the end of Pinochet's military regime.

Bachelet called off her final rally Wednesday a day after three supporters and two drivers were killed in a traffic accident south of the capital. A nephew of Bachelet was among 20 people injured.

Earlier, plans for the candidate to be joined by the first lady of Argentina and newly elected senator, Christina Kirchner, triggered criticism from her right-wing opponents.

A Bachelet spokeswoman, Marta Hanssen, told AFP the candidate was focused on the victims of the crash, not the rally, and that Kirchner would likely not be making making a campaign appearance.

The center-left coalition has had a grip on the presidency since the return to civilian rule, and the country's right wing is going into the election divided between two candidates.

Former Santiago mayor Joaquin Lavin, of the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI), and businessman Sebastian Pinera, the brother of a Pinochet minister, with the more moderate National Renovation Party (RN), have split the right wing vote.

Lavin and Pinera staged rival rallies on Wednesday to mark the end of their campaigns.

Lavin was to hold his final rally in the Santiago national stadium while Pinera supporters were to gather in the giant Puente Alto square to hear speeches and a pop concert.

Lavin ran unsuccessfully against Lagos in 1999. But he gained the most votes by the right in the post-Pinochet era with 47.7 percent of the votes.

But Lavin has been criticized for his stint as mayor and for attacking Lagos' economic policies, when the country has posted healthy six percent growth over the past two years.

He was the right-wing's sole candidate until May, running for the Alliance of Chile coalition, which includes the RN and UDI.

Pinera saw his rival's fall in popularity as a chance to strike out on his own and convinced his party to nominate him.

The move by Pinera, one of Chile's richest men with an estimated 1.3 billion dollar fortune, ended Lavin's domination of the right-wing opposition.

Their rivalry has greatly benefited Bachelet, who since late November has bounced back from a six percent drop in popularity.

The fourth candidate in the campaign, Tomas Hirsch, who represents the Humanist and Communist parties, has only three to five percent of voter support.

If no candidate clears 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, the leading candidates will contest a runoff vote on January 15.

In addition to voting for president, Chile's more than eight million registered voters will choose 120 deputies and 20 senators.