The World - News from Feb. 6, 1989

The largest Chilean opposition party selected a presidential candidate, ending a political stalemate that has damaged the image of the coalition seeking to oust President Augusto Pinochet after 15 years in power. The Christian Democrat Party elected its leader, Patricio Aylwin, as its candidate for the December election that will determine Pinochet’s successor. In March, Aylwin is expected to be chosen as the single candidate of the 17-party coalition that defeated Pinochet in a referendum last year. The 73-year-old Pinochet--who has been in control since ousting the elected leftist government of Salvador Allende in 1973--had asked voters to give him another eight-year term but now must turn over the presidency in December.