Chilean presidential election, 2009

The Chilean presidential election of 2009 is scheduled by law to take place on Friday December 11 2009. The election will determine the successor to Michelle Bachelet. The winner will be sworn in on March 11 2010.

Chilean politics are dominated by two main coalitions: the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy ("Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia"), composed of the Christian Democrat Party, the Socialist Party, the Party for Democracy, and the Social Democrat Radical Party; and the center-right Alliance for Chile ("Alianza por Chile"), composed of the Independent Democrat Union and National Renewal. The extreme-left "Juntos Podemos Más" pact, made up of the Communist and Humanist parties, has no representatives in Congress and is considered to have almost no chances of winning the presidency.

"Concertación" candidates

The "Concertación" is expected to stage a primary to bring forward a single coalition candidate. The Christian Democrat Party will define its pre-candidate on December 14 2008 in closed primaries. [ [http://www.tercera.com/contenido/23_27931_9.shtml Democracia Cristiana definirá abanderado presidencial en primarias cerradas el próximo 14 de diciembre] , July 7 2008.] The Socialist Party will select its pre-candidate on November 29 2008. [ [http://www.tercera.com/contenido/23_28194_9.shtml PS elegirá el 29 de noviembre a su candidato presidencial] ]

Other candidates

Polls

The first poll to directly evaluate candidate match-ups was released by "La Tercera" on April 28 2007.

References