No knockout punch

IT ALWAYS looked like a tall order. To win Chile’s presidential election at the first time of asking, Michelle Bachelet (pictured left) needed to take more votes than the other eight candidates combined. In the event, she fell just short of the magic 50% mark. She won the first round on November 17th with 47% of the vote.

That means she faces a run-off on December 15th against her conservative rival and childhood pal Evelyn Matthei (pictured right), who came second with 25%. Everything suggests Ms Bachelet will win it with ease. To stand a chance, Ms Matthei will have to pick up virtually all of the votes of the seven candidates who failed to make it to the run-off. Most of those candidates have a leftist, populist bent and their supporters are unlikely to swing behind her centre-right agenda.

Even so, it promises to be a good scrap. Ms Matthei is nothing if not a fighter. “Now it’s down to just two candidates and we’re going to be able to make our points, to argue, to debate,” she said as the final votes were counted. “We have big differences with the left and they will become apparent in the next 30 days.”

Much will be made of the women’s shared past. They first met on an air-force base in the Atacama desert in the 1950s, when Ms Matthei was five and Ms Bachelet seven. Their families lived opposite one another on the same street. Their fathers—both military officers—were close friends.

But behind the human interest story lie significant ideological differences. Ms Bachelet is campaigning on a more radical agenda than in 2006, when she became Chile’s first female president. She has promised sweeping education reform, tax hikes for big business, a new constitution and a new electoral system.

Ms Matthei offers continuity with the current government of Sebastian Piñera, who has presided over brisk economic growth, low inflation, low unemployment and sound fiscal accounts. It would take an enormous upset next month for her to beat Ms Bachelet. Either way, one thing is already certain: Chile’s next president will be a woman.

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