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The outcome of the Presidential elections held in Chile in January 2006 created history when Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria became not only the first woman President of Chile but also the first elected woman President of a Latin American country. Though Bachelet is the first woman ever to be elected President by popular vote in South America, there are two precedents of women Presidents in Latin America: Argentina’s María Estela Martínez, better known as Isabel Perón, took over the Presidency in 1974 upon the death of her husband Juan Domingo Perón but was overthrown from power only two years later by a military coup, and in Bolivia, then Chamber of Deputies Speaker Lidia Gueiler was appointed as interim President in November 1979 but was removed from office by a military junta in July 1980. It seems Bachelet’s future reign—which has been endorsed by popular support—will be much more enduring in the stable political climate of Chile.
Michelle Bachelet, a 54-year-old mother of three, made news not only because of her gender but also because of her radical stance. In a conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic society of Chile, a country where divorce became legal only last year, the newly elected President is a proud socialist, an agonist and a divorcee. Moreover, she has no qualms about admitting to the fact that she bore a child out of wedlock. Her election to the top job in Chile once again reinforces the belief that electorates in general are more concerned about development issues, rather than on personal lives of public figures. It also proves that religious rigidity and political radicalism are not strange bedfellows in electoral politics. And, perhaps, her election also imparts a subtle message that Chile is in transition towards a more modernistic society.
Bachelet of the center-left oriented Socialist Party and the billionaire Chilean businessman Sebastian Piñera of the center-right oriented National Renewal Party were the main players in the recently held Presidential elections in Chile. Though in the first round of the elections, which was held in 11 Dec 2005, no candidate managed to secure a majority necessary to win the electoral battle—Bachelet won 46 percent of votes whereas Sebastian Piñera won 26 percent, and the rightist alliance managed to notch 49 percent of votes against 51 percent votes of leftist coalition—but in the second round of elections, held on 15 January 2006, Bachelet emerged as the clear winner. After the presidential run-off vote, Bachelet got a healthy edge over her right-wing opponent Sebastian Piñera. She won 53.49 percent of votes, as compared to Piñera’s 46.50 percent.
In the legislative elections held during the time of the first round of Presidential elections, the ruling centre-left coalition defeated the opposition right-wing alliance by earning 51.8 percent of votes, which further endorsed the rule of Concertación por la Democracia. It is interesting to note that Bachelet’s will be the fourth consecutive administration headed by the Concertación por la Democracia—a centre-left coalition constituting the Socialist Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Party for Democracy and the Social Democratic Radical Party. With Bachelet’s victory, the Concertación has further consolidated its supremacy in the politics of Chile.
In 2000, then Chilean President Ricardo Lagos kick-started Bachelet’s political career by appointing her Minister of Health, and in 2002 she was appointed Defense Minister, becoming the first woman to hold this post in a Latin American country. Bachelet’s popularity rose quickly and she emerged as the favourite contestant for the recently held Presidential polls. Her popularity even induced her centre-left coalition member and presidential contender, Alvear, to withdraw from the race.
Bachelet was sworn in as President of the Republic of Chile on 11 March 2006, when Lagos ended his six year term in the office, in a ceremony held in a plenary session of the National Congress in Valparaíso, which was attended by a record number of foreign heads of states and delegates. Though Lagos had done a commendable job and was revered for his dynamic welfare initiatives such as using free trade initiatives to finance social programmes, a President cannot be elected for a second term under Chile’s constitution. And the next best choice for the electorate was obviously Bachelet, who not only belongs to the same party as Lagos but is expected to follow similar policies like her mentor.
Though it seems that Bachelet doesn’t have a long tenure in the public life, and her rise to fame and power has been pretty fast, but she has a fairly long association with the Chile politics. In 1973, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte took control of Chile following a military coup against the then ruling government, and established a ruthless military dictatorship, which lasted for seventeen years. Bachelet’s father Alberto Bachelet, who was an Air Force General during the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende—the government that was overthrown by the military coup—was arrested during Pinochet’s authoritarian regime. He was tortured on the suspicion that he opposed the 1973 military coup, which led to his death in prison from cardiac arrest in 1974. Not only that, Bachelet, who then worked undercover for the socialist youth, and her mother also didn’t escape Pinochet’s political vendatta. In 1975, she went into exile, arriving first in Australia and then settling down in the German Democratic Republic.
Bachelet is expected to maintain the open economy of Chile, but wants to lend the soothing support of welfare to harsh market economics. She has called for increasing pension benefits for the elderly, providing access to pre-school across the nation, and providing poor working mothers with the support of childcare. Bachelet also called for enforcing Chile’s lax labour laws. She has also promised to send a bill to congress to ensure that more workers are covered, at a lower cost, under the private pension system.
Overall, one can safely say that Bachelet’s triumph over Piñera will reinforce a socialist trend in Latin America. Already Evo Morales—a socialist—won the Presidential election in Bolivia in 2005; Brazil and Uruguay also have a leftist prevalence in their politics.
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