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Chile Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Chile
Official Name: Republic of Chile
Capital: Santiago
Area: 756,950 square kilometres (292,260 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Santiago 5,065,000 (1995)
Concepción 326,784 (1992)
Viña del Mar 303,589 (1992)
Valparaíso 274,228 (1992)
Population: 14,262,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 1.6 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 18 September 1810 (from Spain)
Constitution: 11 September 1980, effective 11 March 1981; amended 30 July 1989
Voting Rights: Universal and compulsory at age 18
Government
The republic of Chile is a multi-party democracy. A president, directly elected for a four-year term, is head of state and executive head of government. The bicameral national congress is made up of a 47-member senate and a 120-member chamber of deputies. The legislature sits at Valparaíso in a newly constructed congressional building. There are 13 administrative regions subdivided into 51 provinces. The voting age is 18; all eligible citizens are required by law to vote.
Recent History
In 1970 a close presidential election was won by Salvador Allende Gossens, who became the Western Hemisphere’s first freely elected Marxist president. Allende’s policies caused a rapid rise in inflation, which by 1973 had grown to more than 350 per cent. A United States trade embargo made matters worse, and civil unrest grew. In September military forces, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, seized power. Allende was killed in the struggle, thousands fled the country, and many died or were tortured in the anti-Communist purge that followed.
Backed by the military, Pinochet ruled by decree. In 1980 a new constitution gave him the right to rule until 1988, when a plebiscite would be held to determine whether he should continue in power or allow free elections. Upon losing the plebiscite, he called for elections in December 1989. Pinochet’s choice for president, finance minister Hernán Büchi Buc, was defeated by the centre-left candidate, Patricio Aylwin Azócar. Aylwin took office in 1990 as the first elected president since Allende in 1970. While maintaining a careful balance between opposing political forces, he introduced a number of programmes for social reform. Aylwin did not run for re-election in 1993, but instead supported Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the son of a former president. Frei won the December elections and took office in March 1994, promising to continue Aylwin’s anti-poverty measures and to seek closer economic ties with the US. Pinochet continues to wield significant power as head of the armed forces, a post from which he cannot legally be removed under the constitution until 1997.
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