Ñuñoa Citizens Protest As Registry Closes Without Attending To Those Still In Line
 
Chile’s voter registration service (SERVEL) worked overtime Sunday to register last minute “would-be voters,” but in some instances not long enough to handle all the citizens who wanted to register.
 
 

Although would-be voters at some registration centers waited hours in line Sunday afternoon, officials at several locations decided to close down registration promptly at the 7 pm deadline, leaving hundreds of potential voters – maybe thousands? – unregistered and so disenfranchised.

A proposal floated last earlier this month to extend the voter registration process an additional month was nixed by the government (ST, Sept. 7).  This meant unregistered voters could no longer postpone registration if they wanted to participate in the upcoming Dec. 13 presidential and congressional races. Most of those registering at the last minute Sunday appeared to be young voters.

The registration bell is also set to toll this week for the numerous presidential contenders and congressional (deputies and senators) races.

Chile’s three primary presidential contenders – Sen. Eduardo Frei of the governing center-left Concertacion coalition, businessman Sebastian Piñera of the rightist Alianza coalition, and independent candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami registered their candidacies, as did (far left) Juntos Podemos candidate Jorge Arrate and Wide Socialist Movement candidate Sen. Alejandro Navarro. But Sen. Adolfo Zaldivar, the leader of the regional PRI party, announced Monday he was dropping out of the race.

Recent polls have Piñera leading the field in the first round of voting with 37 percent of the vote, but without sufficient support to avoid a run-off election. Frei places second with 25 percent of the vote and Enriquez-Ominami polls 17 percent. Still, the race is far from over and the young Enriquez-Ominami (36 years old) is the only candidate who appears to be steadily increasing his support among voters.

The official deputy and senator slates were also confirmed this week, with political coalitions jockeying to find the best candidates for each race. President Michelle Bachelet lamented that the four parties from her governing center-left Concertacion coaltion had not increased the number of female candidates running for office.

With voter registration now officially closed, SERVEL reports that next Dec. 13 about 200,000 new voters will be going to the polls.

SERVEL director Juan Ignacio García apologized Monday for the treatment some would-be voters received Sunday when trying to register at the last minute. He suggested ways to improve the system, including voluntary voting and automatic registration in order to avoid the collapse of the voter registration that was evident over the weekend. He also insisted that SERVEL needs more employees to handle last minute overloads, noting that registration at all SERVEL locations is slow and done in long-hand without use of computers.

One of Sunday’s worst incidents occurred in Santiago’s Ñuñoa borough, where SERVEL officials promptly closed their door at 7 p.m., saying they would only finish registering people already inside the center. This action left at least 200 mostly young people waiting outside, many who had waited in line for as many as five hours.

But at 10 p.m. SERVEL personnel at the Ñuñoa office announced that the people still waiting to register inside the building would also not be attended.

Citizens reacted by protesting in front of the office. Soon afterwards, police arrived to evacuate those present. Some people were detained and the police were accused of forcefully evacuating the protesters. 
 
(Ed. Note: A similar incident was reported in Viña del Mar. Please see today’s Santiago Times  Feature Story for a first-hand account.)

People also faced long lineups and long hours of waiting in Providencia, Recoleta and other Santiago boroughs. Similar situations occurred throughout the country.

SOURCES: LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO
By Gida Homad-Hamam