Elections in Chile - December 12, 1999(1/17/2000) Socialist candidate for the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia Ricardo Lagos narrowly defeated rightist Joaquín Lavín in yesterday's run-off election in Chile. Lagos tallied 51.31% of the vote (3,675,255 votes), while Lavín won 48.69% (3,486,696). Of the country's 13 regions, Lagos won in eight, including the metropolitan area of Santiago, while Lavín won in five. The narrow, three percent margin, representing 188,559 votes, was nonetheless far wider than the some 30,000 votes that separated the candidates on the first ballot.
Of 8,084,476 registered voters, 7,309,619 turned out at the polls yesterday. Blank and null ballots account for 1.41% of total votes. Voting is obligatory in Chile.
The three percent difference corresponds closely to the votes obtained by Gladys Marín's far left coalition in the first round, suggesting that her supporters transferred their votes to the Concertación, without further defections of Christian Democrats from the Concertación over to the right.
Source: El Mercurio, Monday, January 17, 2000.
Ricardo Lagos, Socialist candidate of the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia, and Joaquín Lavín, of the rightist Alliance for Chile, finished in a dead heat in the Sunday, December 12, presidential elections. With 99.43% of polling sites counted, Lagos won 47.96% of the vote and Lavín, 47.52%, necessitating a second round between the two candidates. Gladys Marín, Communist Party candidate for the Left coalition, garnered 3.19% of the national vote. Lagos beat Lavín by a scant 30,718 votes (out of a total 7,227,609 cast), just over one per polling site (29,608).
The run-off election, to be held January 16, 2000, will be the first ever in Chilean history. Article 26 of the 1980 Constitution (which the Pinochet dictatorship had designed with renewal of presidential elections in mind) provides for run-offs if no candidate obtains an absolute majority. However, the left-center Concertación has won presidential elections since Chile's democratization without recourse to a second round.
Rightist parties have gained an overwhelming 17% since Chile's last presidential elections. Analysts aver that the centrist Christian Democrats have divided their vote between the right (Lavín) and left (Lagos), but vaticinate that the Communist vote will go over to Lagos.
Source: El Mercurio, December 13, 1999. Official results
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