If you had asked me a couple of weeks back who the President of Chile was, my answer would have been: Michelle Bachelet.
Little had I realized that her term had ended in 2010, with no immediate re-election possible according to the Chilean constitution.
But somehow the face and name stuck in my head and I thought she is, next to Cristina and Dilma, the third woman running a South American country.
Well, she ain’t. But she might be, again.
Chile is in the last days of its presidential election campaign. Round number two, as no one won the first turn in mid-november.
Michelle Bachelet is the big favorite. Everyone just calls her Michelle. What sounds unfamiliar – or way too familiar – is due to her immense popularity she gained as a minister in various governments in the 2000s, among them the Ministry of Defense.
She runs for her second, non consecutive term in office and it would come as a big surprise if she did not win. All polls show her ahead. If you ask any Chilean who might win, the answer is unanimous. She got 47% in the first turn, her competitor a mere 25%.
Poor Evelyn, her adversary. Evelyn Matthei, an economist and former minister for employment and social affairs, is having a hard time. She would have to double her vote from a few weeks back, something pretty much out of reach.
Childhood friends with Michelle, they found themselves on opposite sides during the military dictatorship, where Evelyn’s father worked for the junta that tortured and killed Michelle’s father.
She is now facing Michelle in what seems to be a lost cause. How do you run a campaign against all odds, against someone so popular as Michelle? Well, they dropped the family name, so the city is now plastered with Michelle contra Evelyn posters, both smiling and hugging at every corner.
Si se puede is Evelyn’s campaign slogan, a pretty obvious copy cat of Obama’s Yes we can. At least her campaign posters show her in a realistic style, not photoshopped to the max as Angela Merkel in her last campaign.
I tried to understand the big issues at stake in this election, at least a bit, besides the big left/right divide in Chilean politics. I went to a gathering in the city, I hoped to meet Michelle herself, but she did not attend… It was a rather small support show, with flyers being distributed… other than that, I have to say I did not understand much of it.
Michelle wants to call for a constitutional assembly that would work out a new constitution, replacing the current one from 1980 that was still written by then-dictator Augusto Pinochet (and revised with the passage to democracy and again in the 2000s…) Evelyn, I guess, thinks it’s not necessary.
Tomorrow night the poling stations will close, and a few hours later the official result will be made public. I asked whether there would be celebrations at Plaza Italia, one of the main squares, but no one seems to expect anything, as the result seems to be so clear.
The big unknown, according to the sunday press, is voter turnout. It was already pretty low in the last turn, and as things might seem all too obvious, many people might stay at home. Maybe Michelle’s supporters think the election is already won…
For a presidential election, all this seems to be pretty uneventful. Still, a little celebration would be nice, if only for my photo album.
However, not all seem to be happy with the choice ahead. All over the city, stencils appeared ahed of the first round, pleading: Mamita, porfa, no votes x las rubias.
Mama, please, don’t vote for the Blondes.