(08/15/09) -

Conservative Piñera Leads Chilean Presidential Race

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Sebastián Piñera is poised to secure a victory in this year’s presidential election in Chile, according to a poll by CERC. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for Piñera of the centre-right Alliance for Chile (APC) in the December ballot.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Sebastián Piñera is poised to secure a victory in this year’s presidential election in Chile, according to a poll by CERC. 37 per cent of respondents would vote for Piñera of the centre-right Alliance for Chile (APC) in the December ballot.

Former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle of the centre-left Agreement of Parties for Democracy (CPD) is second with 22 per cent, followed by independent candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominami with 15 per cent. Support is lower for senator Alejandro Navarro of the Broad Social Movement (MAS), and independent lawmaker and former Senate president Adolfo Zaldívar. 24 per cent of respondents remain undecided.

In a prospective run-off scenario, Piñera holds an eight-point lead over Frei.

The CPD’s Michelle Bachelet—a former defence minister—was elected in a January 2006 run-off with 53.49 per cent of all cast ballots. Piñera was second with 46.51 per cent.

The CPD—which includes the Socialist Party (PS), the Christian-Democratic Party of Chile (PCD), the Party for Democracy (PD) and the Radical Social-Democratic Party (PRSD)—has not lost a single presidential election in Chile since the return of democracy after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in March 1990. The centre-right APC encompasses Piñera’s National Renewal (RN) and the Independent Democratic Union (UDI).

In October 2008, Piñera’s RN achieved significant victories in local elections across the country. For the first time, centre-right parties have more elected mayors than centre-left organizations.

Frei served as Chile’s president from March 1994 to March 2000. Enríquez-Ominami recently split from the Socialists to run as an independent. He is an elected deputy in the lower house. His father, the late Miguel Enríquez Espinosa, was the founder and secretary general of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and was assassinated by the Pinochet regime when Ominami was three months old.

Piñera has built his career on the premise that he represents a new type of conservatism that is no longer tied to the Pinochet era. Piñera’s brother, José, served as Pinochet’s labour minister and was deemed a close advisor.

Earlier this month, Frei said that, if elected, he is committed to developing both nuclear and hydroelectric power. His statement put him at odds with the Green Party (PE), which usually supports the CPD candidates. On Aug. 7, PE spokesman Manuel Baquedano declared: "As environmentalists, we will not support any candidate who promotes nuclear energy and the proliferation of hydroelectric plants."

Bachelet is ineligible for a consecutive term in office. The first round of Chile’s presidential election is scheduled for Dec. 11.

Polling Data

If the presidential election took place this Sunday and these were the candidates, which one of them would you vote for?

If a second round takes place, which one of these candidates would you vote for?

Source: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contemporánea (CERC)
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Chilean adults, conducted from Jul. 17 to Aug. 3, 2009. Margin of error is 3 per cent.