January 17 2010

Today is presidential election day in Chile.  Voting is mandatory in Chile, with fines of around $200 if you don’t do your civic duty.  Most places are closed to allow citizens to visit the polls.  Bars close and alcohol sales stop at midnight the night before; Chileans need to be fresh and clear headed.  Claudia had to vote in the morning, but not too early because if you are one of the first people there, you are conscripted to work the voting station all day, with no option to refuse.  Not coincidently, because everything is closed, today was a travel day for us.  We packed up and headed to the coastal resort city of Vina del Mar, next to Chile’s largest port city of Valapariso.

The main candidates were Eduardo Frei and Sebastian Pinera.  Frei was already president in the 90s, and his father was president before Allende in the 60s.  His presidential term in the 90s sound s as if it was pretty luke warm, with few major accomplishments.  Pinera is a billionaire businessman, who owns LAN Airlines, but grew up in a middle class family.  He ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2006 against Chile’s current and first female president, Michele Bachelet, who is leaving office with an 80% approval rating.  Both Frei and Pinera are fairly centrist candidates.  Preliminary results were announced around 6pm, Pinera Wins!  and the party started with a vengeance.  Cars and trucks, with people hanging out of the windows, drove up and down the street, waving flags and creating a cacophony of noise.  The typical honk was a Beeeeep. Beeeeeep, then three quick staccato beeps.  This went on for hours.  Luckily my hotel room didn’t face the main street.