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Chileans cast their ballot in decisive presidential election runoff Sebastián Piñera wins Chile's presidential election
(about 7 hours later)
Chileans have voted in a runoff presidential election that will determine if the country stays on its centre-left course or joins a tide of Latin American nations that have been turning to the right in recent years. Sebastián Piñera won Chile’s presidency on Sunday, with his centre-left opponent Alejandro Guillier conceding the election as Chile followed other South American nations in a political turn to the right.
The choice was between billionaire and former president Sebastián Piñera, 68, a conservative who was considered the frontrunner but earned fewer votes than expected in last month’s first round, and center-left senator Alejandro Guillier, a 64-year-old former TV news anchor. With 98.44% of the ballots counted, the billionaire conservative, 68, had won 54.57% in the runoff vote, to 45.43% for senator Guillier, a wider than expected margin in a race that pollsters had predicted would be tight.
Both candidates would keep in place Chile’s longstanding free-market economic model, but Piñera has promised lower taxes to turbocharge growth while Guillier wants the government to press on with outgoing president Michelle Bachelet’s overhaul of education, taxes and labour. Months of campaigning exposed deepening rifts among the country’s once bedrock centre left, an opening former president Piñera leveraged to rally more centrist voters around his proposals to cut corporate taxes, double economic growth and eliminate poverty in the world’s top copper producer.
The contest takes place before a long stretch of elections in Latin America in 2018. While populist candidates on both the right and the left are polling near the top in the countries with the largest economies – Brazil and Mexico – none advanced to the second round in Chile. In his concession speech at a hotel in downtown Santiago, Guillier called his loss a “harsh defeat” and urged his supporters to defend the progressive reforms of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet’s second term. Many Chileans had viewed the election as a referendum on her policies, which focused on reducing inequality by making education more affordable and overhauling the tax code.
The election on Sunday was the first in which Chileans living abroad were allowed to vote, adding another layer of uncertainty. Piñera’s supporters cheered the news at his campaign headquarters as the results were swiftly tabulated on a hot and sunny evening in Santiago.
Piñera called for unity after what has been a bitter campaign and reminded Chileans of the national strength they had shown during the rescue of 33 trapped miners in 2010, the high point of his first term that ended in 2014. Though neither candidate would have marked a dramatic shift from Chile’s longstanding free-market economic model, a Piñera victory underscores an increasing tilt to the right in South America following the rise of conservative leaders in Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
“My great hope is that after this election, despite the division, we can return to unity,” he said after voting in Santiago. Piñera painted Guillier, a former TV anchorman and current senator, as extreme in a country known for its moderation, and likened him to Venezuela socialist President Nicolás Maduro. But Piñera’s own conservative agenda may also struggle, at a time when efforts by his ideological allies in Brazil and Argentina to reduce fiscal deficits by cutting spending have faced political opposition and sparked protests.
Guillier told a crowd in his hometown of Antofagasta, near the country’s main copper mines – Chile is the world’s largest producer of the metal – that he was optimistic about winning by a “marked difference.” The investor favourite, Piñera’s proposals are seen as miner-friendly in a country where copper is king. He has pledged support and stable funding for Chile’s state-run miner Codelco, and has promised to slash red tape which had bogged down projects under Bachelet. After a leftist party made unexpected gains in November’s first round, Piñera sought to woo less well-off voters with proposals such as the creation of a public pension fund to compete with Chile’s criticised private pension funds, and the expansion of free education.
Patricio Flores, 36, a construction worker and supporter of 46-year-old journalist Beatriz Sánchez, who polled third in the first round, said: “We can’t have a billionaire running our country. Obviously he is going to protect his own interests.” The race marks a turning point for Chile’s historic coalition of centre-left parties, previously known as the Concertación. The pact fissured under Bachelet, riven by disagreements over policies such as loosening Chile’s strict abortion laws and strengthening unions.
Guillier, a former radio and television journalist of more modest means than Piñera, has pledged to increase access to free higher education and write workers’ and indigenous rights into a constitution to replace the current document dating back to the dictatorship era. Piñera seized on the backlash, campaigning on a platform of scaling back and “perfecting” her tax and labour laws, seen by many in the business community as crimping investment at a time slumping copper prices were weighing on the economy. “I voted for Piñera because I am an entrepreneur. I value my own efforts and do not expect much from the government,” said Rosario Poma, 53. “I think (Piñera) will be good for investment.”
Piñera, a Harvard-trained economist who made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile in the 1980s, said he would create a public pension fund to compete with Chile’s much-criticised private pension funds, and expand free education. “My great hope is that after this election, despite the division, we can return to unity,” he said after voting in Santiago.To win, Guillier must capture votes from Sanchez supporters, who said she would vote for him to protest Pinera.
“I voted for Piñera because I am an entrepreneur. I value my own efforts and do not expect much from the government,” said Rosario Poma, 53. “I think [Piñera] will be good for investment.”