Chilean
president-elected Michelle Bachelet (L) meeting with candidate of La
Alianza, Evelyn Matthei (R) in Santiago, Chile yesterday. Photograph:
EPA.
Chile’s once and future leader Michelle Bachelet
has easily won the presidential run-off, returning centre-left parties
to power by promising profound social changes in response to years of
street protests.
Ms Bachelet won 62 per cent of
the vote, the most decisive victory in eight decades of Chilean
elections. Her conservative rival, Evelyn Matthei only got 37 per cent of the vote and conceded defeat in the worst performance for the right in two decades.
Ms
Bachelet needs the momentum of her resounding victory to strengthen her
mandate and try to overcome congressional opposition to fulfil her
promises.
The 62-year old paediatrician ended her
2006-2010 presidency with 84 per cent approval ratings despite failing
to achieve any major changes.
This time however,
activists are vowing to hold her to her promises, which include raising
corporate taxes to 25 per cent from 20 per cent to help fund an
education overhaul and changing the dictatorship-era constitution, a
difficult goal given congressional opposition.
“The
social and political conditions are here and at last the moment has
arrived,” Ms Bachelet told more than 10,000 cheering supporters gathered
for her victory speech.
“If I’m here it’s because we believe that a Chile for everyone is necessary. It won’t be easy, but when has it been easy to change the world?”
Many
Chileans complain that policies imposed by General Augusto Pinochet’s
1973-1990 dictatorship have kept wealth and power in few hands. Pinochet
effectively ended land reform by selling off the nation’s water, and he
preserved the best educations for elites by ending the central control
and funding of public schools.
Opinion polls
pointed early to a bruising defeat for Ms Matthei, a former labour
minister, because of her past support for Pinochet and her ties to
outgoing president Sebastian Pinera.
Mr
Pinera, a billionaire entrepreneur, was Chile’s first centre-right
president since democracy’s return and is the most unpopular, with just
34 per cent support in the latest CEP poll.
This
was Chile’s first presidential election after voter registration became
automatic, increasing the electorate from eight million to 13.5 million
of the country’s nearly 17 million people. But voting became optional
with the change, and only 50 per cent of voters turned out in the first
round, frustrating both the major coalitions. In the run-off, only 5.5
million voted — 41 per cent.
It also was Chile’s first choice between two women, both with long careers in politics.
Ms
Bachelet and Ms Matthei share a dramatic history: Playmates while
growing up on a military base, they found themselves on opposite sides
of Chile’s wide political divide after the 1973 military coup.
Ms
Matthei’s father became a member of Pinochet’s junta while Ms
Bachelet’s father was tortured to death for refusing to support the
strongman. Ms Bachelet, a moderate socialist, was imprisoned herself and
forced into exile to East Germany.
When
she returned to Chile in 1979, she studied medicine, specialising in
paediatrics. She began working at an organisation that helped children
with mental health problems whose parents had been victims of the
dictatorship.
At the same time, she rose through the Socialist Party
and became a key player in the centre-left coalition that dominated
Chile’s government for almost 20 years after Pinochet gave up power.
Ms
Bachelet is known as an astute negotiator, and her charisma and ability
to evoke a close relationship with people has on occasion helped her
overcome mistakes. But her critics say her faults have not been few or
small.
When a devastating earthquake struck in
2010 killing more than 500 people just 11 days before the end of her
term, the national emergency office failed to issue a tsunami warning.
Many coastal dwellers had figured they were safe, and failed to run to
higher ground.
Chile is the world’s top copper producer, and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. But many Chileans say more of the copper wealth should be used to fix the underfunded public education system.
AP
No comments:
Post a Comment