News Categories Political News CHILE: NEW POLL HAS PIŅERA WELL OUT IN FRONT
| CHILE: NEW POLL HAS PIŅERA WELL OUT IN FRONT |
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| Written by Santiago Times Staff | |
| Thursday, 23 July 2009 | |
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A new poll shows opposition leader Sebastián Piñera enjoying a comfortable lead over his principal rival, former president and current Democratic Christian (DC) Senator Eduardo Frei. The MORI poll, released Thursday, has Piñera – a wealthy businessman and former senator – winning 43 percent of the vote in a first-round election versus just 21 percent for Frei. Upstart candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami, an independent, polled at 13 percent.The survey predicts Piñera coming out ahead in a runoff scenario as well. Against Frei, Piñera could expect to win 46 percent to 30 percent. His margin of victory would likely be greater still in a head-to-head against the 36-year-old Enriquez-Ominami – 47 percent versus 23 percent – the MORI poll concluded. Long-shot candidates Alejandro Navarro and Adolfo Zaldivar, both senators, and Jorge Arrate, a veteran politician who served as a government minister under both Frei and his predecessor, Patricio Aylwin, barely registered in the survey. Two percent of the MORI poll’s 1,000 respondents said they would vote for Navarro, who left the Socialist Party last year to help establish a new left-wing group called the Wide Social Movement (MAS). Zaldivar, who split from the DC, and Arrate, who now represents the Communist Party, each polled at 1 percent. Despite the low numbers, all three outsider candidates are staying the course – at least for now. Navarro plans to kick start his campaign Friday with an official launch in Santiago’s Teatro Cariola. He will be accompanied by the rock group Los Miserables. Arrate has been doing his best to attract attention as well. On Wednesday the leftist candidate called for nationalizing Santiago’s oft-criticized Transantiago city bus system, which has been a money pit for the government since it first went into operation three years ago. An eventual victory for Piñera, who leads the opposition Alliance for Chile coalition, would signal a major shift in Chilean politics. The governing Concertación coalition, represented this time around by Frei, has won all four presidential elections since the country’s return to democracy in 1990. The election is scheduled for Dec. 11. By Santiago Times Staff ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) |
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