Chile Forum

About 30 days to the election, and I thought it was appropriate to have a dedicated thread to cover all the activity. For all those that are new to Chile and missed the last presidential election, you are in for a political treat of good theater, national pride, and real electoral transparency that makes most of the "developed" countries look like a bunch of banana republics.

The poll above will run until just before the election. Perhaps even a few of our members have been in Chile sufficiently long to be eligible to really vote, if not you got the unofficial Chile Forum Presidential Election.

I only added the three major candidates.

It is fairly certain, unless something really interesting happens that the run off will be between Frei and Pinera. Which in that case, I doubt Frei has a real chance. Everyone remembers his presidency, and even Frei himself has been working hard to play it down.

By the way did anyone catch the broadcast of the canidates free public air time the other night?

It is rather famous in Chile, because all the candidates by law get a free TV advertising spot that is proportioned to their support at that point. Well, a few years ago one of the minor candidates only had something like 5 seconds of air time, and went on naked. So, now there is kind of a tradition of everyone getting creative with their limited airtime.

This year was kind of boring, compared to previous years.

admin wrote:By the way did anyone catch the broadcast of the canidates free public air time the other night?

Yes. In the afternoon before the debate, I even ran into them at a local restaurant in downtown Talca where there were many ralies supporting them. They looked more ordinary than the American presidential candidates.
TP

Yea, the day of the election is like a national party.

First, it is a national holiday by law, and everything is closed by law accept for essential public safety type services. Everyone gets together with friends and family, and watches the results come in across the country.

I am not sure, but they use to outlaw the sale of alcohol on the day of the election. Somewhere it was mentioned however that they gave up that law recently, because they where not exactly having any luck enforcing it anyway. The whole country just stocked up the day before, and drank even more on the election day than if they had let the sales go on as normal.

The most impressive thing though is the transparency. There is none of this funny hide and seek with the poll workers, the party officials, elector college bs, messing with the votes. It is a straight direct election, with very little opportunity for anyone to fudge the numbers.

People are drafted at random to staff the polling places. Everyone that votes tries to avoid showing up too early, because if they are short workers at the polling station they just grab the next guy in line and he is stuck there at the polling place for the rest of the day working the tables. The tv news cameras are all over the country, and they are allowed inside the polling place and report almost on vote by vote basis as people cast them. There are no issues about anyone playing games, because the whole country is watching it live on TV. The official announcements of the progress of the counts are made through out the evening, so there is also none of this Micky Mouse unofficial guessing by news anchors that end up declaring more than one person the winner.

The whole thing has a certain super-boll feel to it with people celebrating around the country, rather than some stuffy election.

Most important - NO DIEBOLD HACK THE VOTE !!

Was very impressed the last election when I saw the manual paper votes being counted by a panel in front of the public and media in an auditorium or classroom.

And Admin, us non-voters DO have influence as my pareja will be voting my recommendation which I explained logically and which she too agrees makes sense (read: you don't have to like the man at the helm, it is more important to change the corruption of influence, sack the idiot average gov bureaucrats making buku many hundreds of thousands of pesos more than the common chileno for four hours of weekday work per day or less who are only there because of their pitutos and loyalty to essentially a one-party government for the past 20 years).

That should ignite some fireworks

Although I'm in my right as a chilean, I have decided not to vote this year...no women candidates so why waste my vote. I had enough of the male bullshit and their testesterone...the world is in such a bad shape because they have taken control for generations and I'm certain that in the coming years things are not going to get better, in fact even worse. Bachelette probably didn't pleased everyone however she has sent a message that a woman is capable ( and more so) to "run a country" in a orderly and fair fashion. Corruption has been around even before Christ was born.... some things will never change and nowadays GREED is KING. I don't care who will win whether they are from the left or right, independent or socialist, communist or in between etc, and as long as that person is mentally and spiritually well balanced...we are going to swim or sink.

And Admin, us non-voters DO have influence as my pareja will be voting my recommendation which I explained logically and which she too agrees makes sense (read: you don't have to like the man at the helm, it is more important to change the corruption of influence, sack the idiot average gov bureaucrats making buku many hundreds of thousands of pesos more than the common chileno for four hours of weekday work per day or less who are only there because of their pitutos and loyalty to essentially a one-party government for the past 20 years)

Another delusional gringo. Thinks he has "influence".

Delusional is as delusional does.

Great thread. Plus I got a few chuckles from some of the posts (naked candidates, Gloria and her usual stinging thoughts - go Gloria GO! and eeuu squeezing his squeeze to vote his pick!). I think it will be fun to take my Mom to town and watch the event unfold.

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote:Great thread. Plus I got a few chuckles from some of the posts (naked candidates, Gloria and her usual stinging thoughts - go Gloria GO! and eeuu squeezing his squeeze to vote his pick!). I think it will be fun to take my Mom to town and watch the event unfold.

Too bad Vicki's mom got here too little too late or I would've voted for her!...Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait 4 more years!

Do you know if chilean people can vote from England?

Not sure, but as I recall it was still being discussed with the electoral reforms along with no mandatory voting once you register.

There was also some discussion about creating automatic registration. You turn 18 or whatever, and you are registered to vote.