Ruling Coalition Candidate Wins Presidency in Chile

Voters chose Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei as Chile’s next president by a wide margin Saturday, according to exit polls and official returns, signaling a solid endorsement of the center-left coalition that has governed since the end of military rule in 1990.

Official returns from more than 90% of all polling stations nationwide gave Frei 58% of the vote against 24% for conservative candidate Arturo Alessandri. Four other presidential candidates were far behind, with no more than 6.5% each.

“I receive this mandate with serenity; I receive it with humility, with no sign of haughtiness or arrogance,” Frei told a cheering, banner-waving crowd in a downtown plaza after midnight. “But at the same time, with great decisiveness and courage, I will be president of all Chileans without exception.”

He promised to lead an administration “of excellence and efficiency” to “reach the 21st Century as a truly modern country.”

Alessandri, 70, conceded to Frei, 51, earlier Saturday.

“A majority of the country has elected a different course from the one we proposed,” Alessandri said. “As democrats, we accept this verdict and wish the next government the greatest success, which Chile deserves.”

“There is a very clear triumph here for Eduardo Frei,” said Ricardo Lagos, a Socialist politician and a key member of Frei’s campaign organization. Genaro Arriagada, secretary general of the Christian Democratic Party, said the centrist party was “extraordinarily satisfied” with the results.

“We have many reasons to be very contented,” Arriagada said.

Frei, a senator and the son of a previous president, will succeed Patricio Aylwin, also a Christian Democrat. Aylwin is constitutionally barred from a second consecutive term.

Frei’s inauguration, scheduled for March 11, will be the first turnover between elected presidents since 1970, and the first time a president succeeds another from his own party since 1946.

Saturday’s elections also renewed the Chamber of Deputies, Chile’s lower house of Congress, and part of the Senate.

Frei’s election was foreseen in opinion polls during the campaign. Analysts have concluded that the majority of Chileans feel the country is on the right course and are reluctant to rock the boat.

The Chilean economy grew by a spectacular 10.4% last year, and political life in the renewed democracy has been marked by civility, compromise and tolerance. It was not always so.

Political conflict and economic turmoil marred the administration of Socialist President Salvador Allende, elected in 1970. Allende died, reportedly by suicide, in a bloody coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that overthrew Allende in 1973.

Pinochet ruled with an iron fist until 1990, when Aylwin took office. Aylwin’s election in 1989 followed a plebiscite in which voters rejected a continuation of Pinochet’s ultra-right regime.

The governing coalition includes the Socialist Party once led by Allende and the Party for Democracy, a Social Democratic group formed late in the military regime. The centrist Christian Democrats, Chile’s largest party, have dominated the government.

Frei’s father, also Eduardo Frei and also a Christian Democrat, defeated Allende in 1964 presidential elections and governed for six years. In 1970, Allende finished first with 37% of the vote, beating Christian Democratic and conservative candidates.

Frei, a civil engineer and businessman, worked as a partner in an engineering firm during most of the military regime. He won election to the Senate, his first public post, in 1989.

An unremarkable politician and lackluster campaigner, Frei has benefited from his powerful party’s organization and his father’s popular image.

The governing coalition will increase its majority in the 120-seat Chamber of Deputies but will not break the conservative opposition’s majority in the 46-member Senate.