Chilean presidential election, 2009
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The Chilean presidential election of 2009 is scheduled to take place on Friday December 11, 2009. The election will determine the successor to Michelle Bachelet. The winner will be sworn in on March 11, 2010.
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[edit] Possible candidates
In Chile incumbent presidents are not allowed to seek reelection. Likely candidates from each coalition include the following:
[edit] Concertación
The Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación) may, as in the previous four presidential elections, nominate a single candidate.
- Ricardo Lagos (PS/PPD): The former president may seek releection. Thus far he has made contradictory statements regarding this possibility. In one television interview he discarded the idea, yet in later interviews he has remained open to the idea, saying that, in politics "you can never say never."
- Soledad Alvear (PDC): Alvear lost to Bachelet in the past Concertación primary, and was elected senator in the past election until 2014. She is currently the president of the Christian Democrat Party.
- José Miguel Insulza (PS): The former Interior Minister was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States until 2010. He has expressed interest in the presidency in the past, but has stated he intends to finish his term as Secretary General.
- Nicolás Eyzaguirre (PPD): The former Finance Minister has expressed interest in running for president. He has said that if former president Ricardo Lagos doesn't run for reelection, he would make himself available as candidate.
- José Antonio Gómez (PR): The former Minister of Justice and current senator stated on October 5, 2006 that he had the intention of running in the Concertación primaries.
- Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (PDC): The former president and current senator until 2014 has not ruled out this possibility.
- Adolfo Zaldívar (PDC): The former president of the PDC and senator lost the last internal PDC primary to Alvear. He is the brother of former senator and former Interior Minister Andrés Zaldívar.
- Fernando Flores (PPD): The former minister of Salvador Allende and current senator launched a failed presidential bid for the 2005 election.
[edit] Alianza
The Alliance for Chile (Alianza) may or may not nominee a single coalition candidate.
- Sebastián Piñera (RN): Piñera lost the 2006 runoff election to Michelle Bachelet. In a radio interview on March 14, 2006, he said he would run again in 2009, adding that the campaign would begin in March 2008.
- Pablo Longueira (UDI): He announced his future nomination before the 2005 election took place.
- Joaquín Lavín (UDI): A third nomination for Lavín may seem unlikely, and his party, the Independent Democrat Union, may go for Longueira instead. In an interview with Chile's National Television station (TVN) on March 21, 2006, Lavín said the road to a possible 2009 nomination was for him a "closed window." On October 3, 2006, he stated that if the election took place tomorrow, "Pablo Longueira would be the most likely candidate of the UDI." [1]
- Jacqueline van Rysselberghe (UDI): The current mayor of Concepción was proclaimed, on October 11, 2006, as candidate by five UDI deputies from the Bío-Bío Region.
- Evelyn Matthei (UDI): In March 2006 she was the Alianza candidate for president of the Senate, which she lost 18 to 20 to Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.
- Hernán Larraín (UDI): Larraín was president of the Senate and is now president of his party.
[edit] Podemos
The Together We Can Do More pact (Juntos Podemos Más) was able to attract 5.4% of the vote in the past election under Humanist Tomás Hirsch.
- Tomás Hirsch (PH): Hirsch may seek the far-left pact's renomination.
