Chile's Pinera cruising to primary win, solidifying front-runner status

[sandensea]

Former Chile President Sebastián Piñera was cruising to victory on Sunday in the presidential nominating election for Chile's right-leaning Alianza bloc, consolidating his place as the front-runner for November's general election.

With 60% of votes counted, investor favorite Piñera, 67, a billionaire who governed Chile from 2010 to 2014, had 57% of votes cast in the Alianza primary, the country's electoral service Servel said.

That represented a decisive win over right-wing populist Manuel Jose Ossandon and the more socially liberal Felipe Kast, who had 29% and 14%, respectively.

Chile's relatively minor left-wing Frente Amplio coalition also held its primaries on Sunday, with journalist Beatriz Sánchez easily beating sociologist Alberto Mayol as expected with 68% of the vote.

Sunday's results narrow Chile's presidential field to four major candidates and Piñera's win will be welcome by the business community in one of South America's most stable and affluent countries.

According to the most recent poll by pollster CEP, released in June, Piñera leads the November election with around 24% of the vote. Leftist journalist Alejandro Guillier of the center-left Nueva Mayoria bloc, which did not participate in primaries, is in second place with 13%.

Sánchez followed with 5%, while Carolina Goic of the centrist Christian Democratic Party, which also skipped primaries, is trailing with 2%.

Bachelet is not allowed to seek re-relection, as Chile's constitution bans presidents from seeking consecutive terms.

If no candidate receives 50 percent in the first round in November as is likely, the election will go to a run-off in December. A runoff is seen as much tighter, particularly if the now fractured left unifies around one candidate.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-election-idUSKBN19O018



Chilean candidates (from left): Sebastián Piñera; Carolina Goic; Beatriz Sánchez; and Alejandro Guillier

[Judi Lynn]

1. So sorry Piera intends to run again. Hope there is a different outcome this time.

The voters only have to recall how well it did not go last time for this self-proclaimed Pinochet supporter.

Pinochet, the US-supported psychopathic homicidal sadist who imprisoned and tortured President Michelle Bachelet and her mother, and murdered her father, a loyal Air Force General through torture, Alberto Bachelet, a moral, decent, loyal man.

Piñera liked Pinochet's style? What kind of deranged idiot would vote for him?

Thanks for the heads-up on this approaching election.

The right-wing is trying to seize control of the Americas, again, but in time the right-wing is going to fail bitterly. That will be the humane resolution: total defeat for the greedy, amoral sludge buckets.