CHILE: Presidential candidates Evelyn Matthei and Michelle Bachelet close campaigns ahead of December 15th run-off

Record ID: 346863

  • Title: CHILE: Presidential candidates Evelyn Matthei and Michelle Bachelet close campaigns ahead of December 15th run-off
  • Date: 13th December 2013
  • Summary: BACHELET SUPPORTERS AT RALLY VARIOUS OF BACHELET WALKING TO PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MICHELLE BACHELET, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, SAYING: "We won in the first round, despite the active efforts of the government and its ministers to attack our proposals, blame us for the economic problems and even block initiatives that go past its term in office." BACHELET SUPPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chile
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACH4OR7NG88SLS7Y8NK7L49NMY
  • Story Text: Chilean presidential candidates-- former President Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei of the ruling right-wing Alianza coalition-- wrapped up their campaigns on Thursday (December 12) ahead of the Sunday (December 15) runoff vote.
    Former Labour minister Evelyn Matthei closed out here campaign with a rally in Temuco, the capital city of the Cautin province, 670 kilometres (416 miles) south of Santiago.
    The two foes emerged from a field of nine candidates in a general election in November with neither able to secure 50 percent of the vote, setting the stage for Sunday's second round.
    Matthei, was a last minute choice for the ruling Alianza coalition in July, has pledged to largely continue the business-friendly policies of the current Sebastian Pinera administration if she is elected.
    "We've built a country of which we can be proud. I don't know at what time, I don't know at what time they (the opposition) decided that this house had to come down because to start from zero, to start from putting down the constitution, to want to build everything anew, I'm sorry but what sense does it have when we've built a country of which we are so proud?" she said.
    In the first round of voting on November 17, Matthei, a 60 year-old economist, trailed behind 62-year-old Bachelet, with 25 percent and 47 percent respectively.
    Matthei's chances may have been damaged by connections to the unpopular Pinera, who campaigned with her, and the Pinochet dictatorship. Her father was a key member of the junta and she backed Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite about his rule, which she describes as a "military government," a decision that has dogged her on the campaign trail.
    Still, she asked supporters to harken back to a time in Chile's history when the left ruled and the population suffered through shortages.
    "A recently elected (opposition) deputy said she wanted to change to constitution so we would be more like Venezuela, where every day it's more difficult to find food to eat. It reminds you of something, no? Well, that's why I said to you, they are two completely different visions," she said.
    Bachelet, a centre-leftist who was president from 2006 to 2010, is heavily favoured to return to the country's top job and is hoping a landslide victory will strengthen her Nueva Mayoria, or New Majority, bloc which gained congressional seats in a last month's elections to push her agenda forward.
    Thousands of supporters turned out for Bachelet's closing rally in the capital city of Santiago where she predicted a win and tore into the ruling party.
    "We won in the first round, despite the active efforts of the government and its ministers to attack our proposals, blame us for the economic problems and even block initiatives that go past its term in office," she said.
    The former president has promised to hike corporate taxes to reform Chile's higher education system, shred the dictatorship-era constitution and legalize abortion under certain circumstances.
    "We can make Chile a truly developed country and this all has a role in next Sunday's elections. That's why it matters who wins. On Sunday the 15th we should massively say that Chile wants true changes, with responsibility, seriousness and without last-minute promises," she said.
    Her flagship reforms have resonated in a changing Chile, where major protests for greater distribution of the spoils of a long copper boom have shaken up the political elite.
    Still, Bachelet is a moderate at heart who is unlikely to significantly alter the business-friendly economic model that has drawn in heavy foreign investment.
    A physician by training and moderate socialist by conviction, Bachelet has promised 50 reforms in her first 100 days if she returns to power. Her flagship policy is an increase in corporate taxes to 25 percent from 20 percent to pay for education reforms that include a gradual move to free higher education.
    The election marks the It is the first time two women are vying for the top job in traditionally conservative and Catholic Chile.
    Voting is set to begin at 8 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) and will continue to 6 p.m. (2100 GMT). Results are expected shortly after voting booths close.
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