Chile election: Billionaire and rebellious socialist squeeze ruling party from right and left

Billionaire, rebel are key to Chilean presidency

SANTIAGO, Chile — A right-wing billionaire and a rebellious young socialist were the playmakers in Sunday’s presidential election, challenging Chile’s ruling coalition from the right and left like never before.

The Concertacion has held the presidency since the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship, and even critics acknowledge the center-left coalition’s accomplishments. Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet has 78 percent approval ratings and Chile seems on track to become a first-world nation.

But a huge wealth gap between rich and poor and a chronically underfunded education system have many voters feeling more must be done to redistribute Chile’s copper wealth.

After 19 years in power, the ruling parties have come to be seen as part of the problem, and billionaire Sebastian Pinera’s third run has brought the right closer to La Moneda, Chile’s elegant presidential palace, than it has been since democracy was restored.

But pre-election polls suggested Pinera would fall short of a majority against three leftist candidates, making a Jan. 17 runoff necessary.

A win by Pinera, 60, would mark a tilt to the right in a region where leftists have won most recent elections.

The Harvard-educated economist ranked No. 701 with $1 billion on the Forbes magazine world’s richest list, is the most moderate candidate Chile’s right has ever had. He built his fortune bringing credit cards to Chile, and his investments include Chile’s main airline, most popular football team and a leading TV channel.

He has promised to bring the same entrepreneurial spirit to governing Chile, and expressed optimism after voting Sunday, saying “better times are coming.”

About 44 percent of likely voters favored Pinera in the last major poll published before the vote, compared to 31 for the governing coalition’s Eduardo Frei, 18 for Enriquez-Ominami and 7 for dissident Socialist Jorge Arrate. The survey by the Center for the Study of Contemporary Reality had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Whether the left unites to beat Pinera in January depends largely on Rep. Marco Enriquez-Ominami, a renegade Socialist who broke with Concertacion because the coalition’s rules favored Frei, a former president.

Asked Sunday if he would accept a deal to support Frei against Pinera, he rejected the idea as “typical of the old politics.”

“When it’s not convenient for them, there’s no deal. And when it is convenient, they desperately try until the last minute to offer political appointments in exchange for support,” Enriquez-Ominami said.

A documentary filmmaker and congressman who was raised in Parisian exile after Pinochet’s military killed his Communist rebel father, Enriquez-Ominami has proposed making it easier for independent politicians to run for office. He also would make taxes more progressive and increase spending on education.

At just 36 years old — just a year past the minimum required to run for president — Enriquez-Ominami has fired up younger voters with his charisma and energy.

Chile’s economy, negligible inflation and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. Booming copper revenues and prudent fiscal policies have helped the government reduce poverty from 45 percent in 1990 to 13 percent today, raising per capita annual income to $14,000 in the nation of 17 million.

But a study by the World Bank in 2004 showed that the poorest 10 percent of Chileans benefit from only 1.3 percent of government revenues, while the richest 10 percent benefit from 40 percent.

Stability and experience are Frei’s selling points. He governed Chile from 1994 to 2000 and his father was president in the 1960s. At 67, Frei can’t help but represent the old guard.

“We don’t want leaps into the unknown, nor do we want to return to the past. We want a government that worries about the people,” he said after voting. “We don’t believe that the power of the market and money should have priority over a society.”

Analysts say Enriquez-Ominami’s backers are likely to eventually support Frei, because many can’t stomach Pinera’s alliance of right-wing parties that once supported Pinochet and because the candidates share a remarkable consensus about what Chile needs.

“Absolutely nothing will change … not in the economy, nor in social matters nor in the institutions of government,” said Ricardo Israel, a political scientist at the University of Chile. “This has its good and bad aspects: the good part is that it shows stability, and the bad is that it shows a poverty of ideas.”

Voting is obligatory for registered voters; failing to cast a ballot can bring fines up to $220. But millions of voting-age citizens — especially younger generations — haven’t bothered to sign up — an apathy that both right and left said reflects poorly on the government.

Paper ballots dropped into glass-fronted boxes are later counted by hand.

Exit polls are banned in Chile, but election officials expected to complete the count by Sunday night.

Associated Press Writers Eva Vergara and Federico Quilodran contributed to this report.