Socialist
Bachelet to be first woman to lead Chile after electoral triumph
REUTERS/Maglio
Perez
Newly
elected Chilean President Michelle Bachelet waves
to supporters during a celebration in Santiago January 15, 2006.
By
Jose Luis Varela
AFP
SANTIAGO
Petroleumworld.com 01 16 06
Socialist Michelle Bachelet, 54, will become the first woman to
govern Chile, after defeating conservative billionaire Sebastian
Pinera in Sunday's run-off presidential election.
A former defense minister, Bachelet garnered 53.5 percent of the
vote, seven points ahead of Pinera, and won in all but one of
the country's 13 regions, according to results based on a tally
of almost all the ballots.
Bachelet's triumph will extend the rule of the center-left coalition
that has governed the South American country since the 1990 collapse
of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Her electoral victory had been widely anticipated, though her
lead was stronger than expected.
An agnostic single mother of three, Bachelet was not an obvious
choice for leadership in this socially conservative Roman Catholic
country.
But the economic successes of the current administration evidently
played a significant role in her election.
Bachelet has pledged to pursue the policies of outgoing president
Ricardo Lagos, a fellow-socialist who won praise for his management
of Latin America's star economy.
Her suffering during the Pinochet regime has also won her sympathy
from many people in a country still scarred by the 17-year dictatorship.
Pinera congratulated Bachelet, who he said symbolizes "the
struggle of millions of women to reach the position they deserve."
Lagos hailed what he termed "a historic triumph."
"Today we are a new Chile. Having a woman as president demonstrates
this." We are a Chile that is more free, more diverse, more
just, more prosperous, more modern," he said in an address
from the presidential palace.
He telephoned the victorious candidate to pledge his full support
for her administration.
"It will be a difficult task, but your capabilities will
enable us to have a great government and a great woman,"
said Lagos.
Celebrations broke out in the streets of Santiago after the results
were announced, and supporters cheered and honked their car horns
as they headed to a downtown hotel where Bachelet was set to celebrate
her triumph.
"I feel like a very fortunate woman," Bachelet, told
national television earlier Sunday.
"I was the first woman in Chile's history to be minister
of health, and the first woman minister of defense, and if I am
elected, I would be Chile's first woman president. That means
so much to so many women."
During her campaign, she said she would take advantage of record
copper prices to improve education and conditions for the less
fortunate.
Bachelet has portrayed herself as an ordinary woman who understands
the concerns of ordinary people.
"I work, I take care of my home and I drop my daughter off
at school. But I'm also a Chilean who feels a calling to fight
for justice and to public service."
She once told a biographer that she represented what once was
considered in Chile as "all the capital sins: socialist,
daughter of my father, separated, not religious."
Bachelet's father, an air force general, was an adviser to socialist
president Salvador Allende who was toppled by Pinochet in 1973.
Tortured while in prison, Bachelet's father died six months later.
In 1975, she and her mother were held for about two weeks at Villa
Grimaldi, a notorious torture center.
The two women later fled, first to Australia and then to East
Germany, where Bachelet completed her medical studies.
She will receive the sash of office from outgoing president Ricardo
Lagos, a fellow-socialist on March 11.
More than eight million people were required to cast their ballots
Sunday. But Pinochet, 90 -- who holds voter ID number one -- was
not allowed to vote because he is awaiting trial over the deaths
of dissidents during his 17-year dictatorship.
He has been released on bond from the house arrest that was ordered
as he awaits trial in one case, but on Wednesday, the appeals
court in Santiago also lifted the immunity he enjoyed as an ex-president,
clearing the way for his trial in another case.
AFP
01 15 06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
