[Mb-civic] CBC News - CHILE GETS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

Sun Jan 15 17:05:42 PST 2006

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CHILE GETS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT
WebPosted Sun Jan 15 17:58:54 2006

---A socialist doctor and former political prisoner has been elected as
Chile's first female president.

With 97.5 per cent of about eight million votes counted by early Sunday
evening, Michelle Bachelet of the centre-left coalition Concertacion had
captured 53.5 per cent of the vote.

Her conservative opponent, Sebastian Pinera, held 46 per cent of the
ballots and conceded defeat.

"I want to congratulate Michelle Bachelet for her triumph," Pinera, a
billionaire businessman, said in a televised concession speech.

Bachelet, 54, is a pediatrician who was held as a political prisoner
during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

She won 46 per cent of the votes during a presidential election against
three other candidates in December, but needed to win more than half the
votes to be declared president without the runoff poll.

Bachelet was defence minister for three years under the centre-left
coalition that has governed Chile since Pinochet's military regime was
ousted in 1990.

Female vote thought to be crucial in runoff The female vote was thought
to be key in the runoff election.

Voting is mandatory in Chile and a majority of women surveyed
before the runoff said they would back Bachelet, a single mother
with three children.

Although Bachelet has liberal social views, she won the trust of business
leaders by promising to continue the economic policies of the popular
outgoing president, Ricardo Lagos.

In fact, Bachelet and Pinera shared common campaign themes, including
support for free-market economics, more trade agreements and careful
government spending.

Family history lured voters to Bachelet

Bachelet won voter support in part because of her family history.

Her father, Alberto, was an air force general who was charged with
treason after the 1973 coup led by Pinochet. He was jailed, tortured and
died in prison.

Bachelet, who was only 22 at the time, was briefly jailed along with
her mother.

She then left Chile and spent five years in exile in Austria and East
Germany, where she studied medicine.

She was an unknown when she entered politics, but benefited when Lagos
introduced a policy requiring five cabinet ministers to be women.