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Difficult Year Continues for Chile’s Bachelet
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Since last December, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet has lost a significant amount of public support, according to a poll by CEP. 41 per cent of respondents approve of Bachelet's performance, down nine points in seven months.
Bachelet—a former defence minister—was elected in a January 2006 run-off as the candidate for the centre-left Agreement of Parties for Democracy (CPD) with 53.49 per cent of all cast ballots, defeating Sebastián Piñera of National Renewal (RN). She officially took over as president in March 2006.
Since taking office, Bachelet has faced massive protests staged by high school students complaining about the poor quality of public education, and more recently street demonstrations in Santiago, the capital city, over the botched implementation of a new transportation program.
On Jul. 12, the Chilean government approved a law that will expunge the criminal records of thousands of opponents to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship who were accused of crimes they did not commit, and whose confessions were sometimes obtained through torture. Bachelet celebrated the decision, declaring, "With this law, we move forward in the necessary reparations to thousands of victims of human rights abuses."
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Michelle Bachelet's performance as president?
Jun. 2007 | Dec. 2006 | Jul. 2006 | |
Approve | 41% | 52% | 46% |
Disapprove | 41% | 31% | 31% |
Not sure | 15% | 17% | 23% |
Source: Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP)
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,505 Chilean adults, conducted from Jun. 9 to Jun. 27, 2007. Margin of error is 3.0 per cent.