Primary win puts Michelle Bachelet in pole position for Chilean presidency

Former leader puts down a solid marker for November election after trouncing her centre-left rivals

UN-Women former  director and  Chile’s former leader  Michelle Bachelet  steamed toward another presidential bid on Sunday with a lopsided primary win that prompted her centre-left rivals to concede early in the evening and vow to support her in the November election.

On the right, former economy minister Pablo Longueira defeated his rival Andres Allamand, but will face an uphill battle against Bachelet. Bachelet, 61, who led Chile as its first female president from 2006 to 2010, received 73.07% of the vote, with 99.7% counted. Her two closest rivals in the primary, Andres Velasco and Claudio Orrego, conceded defeat on national television.

“We’ll keep fighting until November 17 to get to the Moneda [presidential palace] in 2014,” Bachelet told cheering supporters. The presidential election is scheduled for November 17 and a second round of voting would be held in mid-December if the front-runner does not get more than half the votes.

Bachelet is widely expected to win back the presidency. “The big winner tonight is Bachelet and the big losers are Allamand and Longueira, she got twice as many votes as they did … the race in November will be for second place and not for first because if Bachelet doesn’t win in the first round, she’ll win the run-off election,” said Patricio Navia, professor at New York University and Universidad Diego Portales.

A victim of torture during Chile’s dictatorship, Bachelet has served as the head of UN Women, the United Nations’ gender equality body, since leaving the presidency. Chile’s president, Sebastian Pinera, a wealthy businessman who has struggled to connect with ordinary Chileans, is barred from running for immediate re-election.

Voters from Pinera’s conservative Alianza coalition gave Longueira 51.35%, against the former defence minister Allamand’s 48.64%, according to preliminary figures.

“Having won these primaries in two months is the best proof that if we get to work tomorrow we’re going to win the presidential election in November,” said a jubilant Longueira. He took the place of businessman Laurence Golborne midway through the primary campaign, after Golborne abandoned his candidacy over a financial scandal.

Longueira is hampered by having served under unpopular Pinera, who broke 20 years of uninterrupted centre-left rule when he took power in 2010. Longueira’s close relationship with the former dictator Augusto Pinochet  is also seen as as an impediment to a presidential run.

Nearly twice as many voters as forecast turned out on Sunday, which analysts have said bodes well for Bachelet in November.

 Source:   Guardian