Elections in Chile

Chile

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Chile

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Chile holds nationwide presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections.

The electoral process is supervised by the Electoral Service (Servicio Electoral), which is independent from the government. Winners are officially proclaimed by the Election Qualifying Court (Tribunal Calificador de Elecciones).

Electorate

All citizens of Chile as well as foreigners legally residing in Chile for at least five years, who are 18 years of age or older on the day of the election, are eligible to enroll and subsequently vote in the elections. Enrollment in Chile is voluntary, however, once electors are registered, voting is compulsory for any future election, except for foreigners, whose vote is always voluntary. Chileans are not allowed to vote overseas. The deadline for registration is 90 days prior to an ordinary election. (In April 2009, a constitutional amendment changed voting from compulsory to voluntary and introduced an automatic registration system. These changes will come into effect once the ad-hoc laws are approved.)

Women's suffrage was achieved in 1934 for local elections. In 1949 voting was extended to literate women over 21. Full universal suffrage was achieved in 1970, with men and women over 18 eligible to vote, regardless of their ability to read and write.

Presidential elections

Presidential elections elect a president, who serves as chief of state and head of government for a period of four years (six years between 1994–2006 and before 1973). Perpetual non-consecutive reelection is permitted.

The President is directly-elected nationwide by the absolute majority of the valid votes (excludes nulls and blanks). If no candidate obtains such majority, a runoff between the two most voted candidates is held. Before 1989, the president was confirmed by Congress if elected by a simple majority.

Each legally operating political party may present one of its members as candidate. Independent candidates are required to gain the support of a number of independent electors prior to registering their candidacy. The number of signatures needed is equal to at least 0.5% of the number of people who last voted in the Chamber of Deputies election, nation-wide. For the 2009 election, the number was 36,037 signatures.

According to the Constitution, presidential elections take place on the third Sunday of November of the year before the incumbent president's term expires. A runoff election —if necessary— takes place on the fourth Sunday following the election. The president is sworn in on the day the incumbent president's term expires. Since 1990 that day has been March 11.

Before 2011 presidential elections took place 90 days before the incumbent president's term expired. If that day was not a Sunday, the election was moved to the next Sunday. A runoff election —if necessary— took place 30 days after the first election. The Sunday rule was also observed. The president is sworn in (in most cases) on March 11; thus, elections took place on or after December 11 of the previous year.

Parliamentary elections

Chile's bicameral Congress consists of a Chamber of Deputies (lower house) and a Senate (upper house). The country is divided into 60 electoral districts for the lower house and 19 senatorial constituencies for the Senate. (See Electoral division of Chile for details.) Each electoral district or senatorial constituency elects two representatives. That is, 120 deputies and 38 senators, in total.

Deputies serve for four years and senators for eight years. Both deputies and senators may seek reelection indefinitely. Half the Senate is renewed every four years. In the first Senate after the restoration of democracy in 1990, senators from odd-numbered regions served for four years (1990-1994), while senators from even-numbered regions plus the Santiago Metropolitan Region served for eight years (1990-1998). The senators from odd-numbered regions elected in 1993 served the usual eight years (1994-2002).

The Constitution establishes that parliamentary elections will be held in conjunction with presidential elections.

The law permits candidates to run as either independent or within a "list." A list is made up of up to two candidates per electoral district or senatorial constituency. There are single-party lists and multiple-party lists (or "pacts"). Within an electoral district or senatorial constituency, pacts may include candidates either from the same political party, two different parties, a combination of a party candidate with an independent candidate, or two independent candidates. Single-party lists are bound to include only candidates from one party and are not allowed to include independent candidates. A political party can only be part of one list, nation-wide. An independent candidate not running within a list is termed a "nominee" and to successfully register their candidacy they must collect a number of signatures equal to at least 0.5% of the number of people who last voted in that electoral district or senatorial constituency.

For a list to take both seats in an electoral district or senatorial constituency, it must outpoll the second most-voted list or nominee by a margin exceeding 2-to-1. When this fails, the two most voted lists or nominees obtain one seat each. In a winning two-candidate list, the seat is awarded to the most voted candidate of the two. The system is essentially the same as the d'Hondt method with only two seats allocated.^[1]

Criticism

This system was established by the military dictatorship that ruled the country until 1990, replacing the proportional system in place until 1973. Gerrymandering was used in the drawing of electoral districts to ensure a substantial representation of the right (one third of the vote, at least) in every electoral district. (See Gerrymandering#Chile for additional details.) The dictatorship also made it nearly impossible to change the system without the vote of the right, as a three fifths majority in any chamber is needed to modify it.

The Concertación governing coalition believes the system undermines its majority in Congress, while overestimating the representation of the right. The right views the system as necessary for the country's stability^[2] and governance as it avoids the atomization of power, encouraging the creation of large coalitions. The far-left sees the system as undemocratic, because it negates representation to a substantial minority.

Another common criticism is that some voters are overrepresented while others are underrepresented, because electoral districts and, especially, senatorial constituencies vary greatly in population. For example, a vote in the scarcely populated senatorial constituency 19 (Aisén Region) is worth as much as 27 votes in the populous senatorial constituency 8 (eastern Santiago Metropolitan Region), as all constituencies elect two seats.^[3]

Municipal elections

Municipal elections elect one mayor and a number of councilmen per municipality. Mayors are elected by a simple majority, while councilmen seats (ranging from 6 to 10, depending on the number of registered voters in each municipality) are decided using the d'Hondt method. Mayors are elected in a separate ballot since 2004. Indefinite reelection is allowed.

The law establishes that municipal elections will take place every four years on the last Sunday of October. The newly elected authorities take office on December 6 of that same year.

National referendums

Main article: Referendums in Chile

The 1980 constitution provides for binding referendums only in the case a constitutional reform passed by Congress is completely vetoed by the President and then re-approved by Congress by a two-thirds majority of each chamber. In such occurrence the President has the authority to either sign the reform into law or call for a referendum. To date, the President has not exercised such power.

Regional elections

Regional board members are currently elected by each region's municipal councilmen, who form electoral colleges per regional province. Each region is allotted two board members per province plus 10 more in regions with up to 1 million inhabitants or 14 more in regions with over 1 million people. These additional board members are apportioned to provinces in relation to their share of the regional population in the latest census using the d'Hondt method. The winners within each province are those who obtain the most votes. However, if within a province, two or more candidates decide to run together as a list, then the winners are decided using the d'Hondt method. The last election took place on December 21, 2008 and the elected board members took office on February 19, 2009.

In October 2009 the Constitution was modified to allow the direct election by universal suffrage of the regional board members, who along with the intendant (appointed by the President of the Republic) form the regional government. They will serve for four years with the possibility of reelection. The number of regional board members will be proportional to the region's population and area in relation to the country. The law regulating regional governments has not been modified to reflect this change, thus it is not known when the first such election will take place.

Primaries

Primary elections have been used in Chile by the Concertación coalition to select its candidate for President of the Republic in 1993, 1999 and 2009 (in 2005 they were cancelled, after one of two contenders quit the race), and by the Juntos Podemos pact to select its presidential candidate in 2009.

Primaries were not established in law until January 2010, when they were added to the Constitution as an option for political parties to choose candidates to any directly elected post. The Constitution states that the primary results are legally binding for political parties that submit to them and that the losing candidates are ineligible for the same election in the respective office.

Primaries will be an option once the specific law regulating them is approved.

Voting

Ballots used in the 2009 parliamentary and presidential elections.

Men and women vote in separate polling stations, which are, in most cases, schools and sporting centers. Mixed-sex polling places do exist, but are rare, and men and women still cast their ballot in separate boxes in such cases. The armed forces and uniformed police (Carabineros) are in charge of providing security to these places before, during, and after the elections.

A national identity card is the only document needed to vote. The vote is secret and in person. Before voting the voter must give out their national identity card (which is retained during the process) to verify they is registered at that particular polling place and then sign a registration book. The voter is then given the ballot(s) and enters a voting booth where they must mark their choice by drawing a vertical line over a printed horizontal line next to their candidate of choice by using a previously provided graphite pencil. Ballots are pre-printed with all the candidate names, their ballot number and their party affiliation. The marking of two or more choices nullifies the vote. A vote is considered "blank" when no candidate was correctly marked. The voter then places the ballot(s) inside the appropriate ballot box(es). Before exiting the polling place the voter's right-hand thumb is marked with ink and their identity card returned.

Suffrage

The state of suffrage in Chile since 1925:

• From 1925: Men over 21 able to read and write. (Art. 7 of the 1925 Constitution) [Note: The Constitution used the gender-ambiguous word chilenos which strictly means "Chilean men" but may also mean "Chilean people".]
• From 1934: Men over 21 able to read and write (general registry); women over 25 able to read and write (municipal registry, i.e. limited to local elections). (Law No. 5,357)
• From 1949: Men and women over 21 able to read and write. (Law No. 9,292)
• From 1970 until today: Men and women over 18. (Law No. 17,284 modifying Art. 7 of the 1925 Constitution; Art. 13 of the 1980 Constitution)

Turnout

Election turnout since 1925.

Date	Election	VAP1	Registered2	%	Turnout3	%	T / VAP %4
1925-10-24	President	N/A	302,142	N/A	N/A	86.4	N/A
1927-05-22	President	N/A	328,700	N/A	N/A	70.4	N/A
1931-10-04	President	N/A	388,959	N/A	N/A	73.5	N/A
1932-10-30	President	N/A	464,879	N/A	N/A	74.0	N/A
1938-10-25	President	N/A	503,871	N/A	N/A	88.1	N/A
1942-02-02	President	N/A	581,486	N/A	N/A	80.2	N/A
1946-09-04	President	N/A	631,257	N/A	N/A	75.9	N/A
1952-09-04	President	N/A	1,105,029	N/A	N/A	86.6	N/A
1953	Legislative	N/A	1,106,709	N/A	N/A	68.6	N/A
1957	Legislative	N/A	1,284,159	N/A	N/A	70.5	N/A
1958-09-04	President	N/A	1,497,902	N/A	N/A	83.5	N/A
1961-03-12	Legislative	N/A	1,858,980	N/A	N/A	74.5	N/A
1964-09-04	President	N/A	2,915,121	N/A	N/A	86.8	N/A
1965-03-14	Legislative	N/A	2,920,615	N/A	N/A	80.6	N/A
1969-03-16	Legislative	N/A	3,244,892	N/A	N/A	74.2	N/A
1970-09-04	President	N/A	3,539,747	N/A	N/A	81.8	N/A
1973-11-03	Legislative	N/A	4,509,559	N/A	N/A	81.8	N/A
1988-10-05	Plebiscite	N/A	7,435,913	N/A	7,251,933	97.53	N/A
1989-07-30	Plebiscite	N/A	7,556,613	N/A	7,082,084	93.72	N/A
1989-12-14	Chamber of Deputies	N/A	7,557,537	N/A	7,158,646	94.72	N/A
1989-12-14	Senate	N/A	7,557,537	N/A	7,158,442	94.72	N/A
1989-12-14	President	N/A	7,557,537	N/A	7,158,727	94.72	N/A
1992-06-28	Municipal	8,867,404	7,840,008	88.41	7,043,827	89.84	79.44
1993-12-11	Chamber of Deputies	9,135,407	8,085,439	88.51	7,385,016	91.34	80.84
1993-12-11	Senate	N/A	N/A	N/A	2,045,681	N/A	N/A
1993-12-11	President	9,135,407	8,085,439	88.51	7,376,691	91.23	80.75
1996-10-27	Municipal	9,654,796	8,073,368	83.62	7,079,418	87.69	73.33
1997-12-14	Chamber of Deputies	9,854,233	8,069,624	81.89	7,046,351	87.32	71.51
1997-12-14	Senate	N/A	N/A	N/A	5,102,906	N/A	N/A
1999-12-12	President	10,205,559	8,084,476	79.22	7,271,584	89.95	71.25
2000-01-16	President-Runoff	10,205,559	8,084,476	79.22	7,326,753	90.63	71.79
2000-10-29	Municipal	10,370,011	8,089,363	78.01	7,089,886	87.64	68.37
2001-12-16	Chamber of Deputies	10,600,931	8,075,446	76.18	7,034,292	87.11	66.36
2001-12-16	Senate	N/A	N/A	N/A	1,975,017	N/A	N/A
2004-10-31	Council people	11,187,459	8,012,065	71.62	6,874,315	85.80	61.45
2004-10-31	Mayors	11,187,459	8,012,065	71.62	6,872,675	85.78	61.43
2005-12-11	Chamber of Deputies	11,419,104	8,220,897	71.99	7,207,351	87.67	63.12
2005-12-11	Senate	N/A	5,863,704	N/A	5,182,224	88.38	N/A
2005-12-11	President	11,419,104	8,220,897	71.99	7,207,278	87.67	63.12
2006-01-15	President-Runoff	11,419,104	8,220,897	71.99	7,162,345	87.12	62.72
2008-10-26	Council people	12,035,307	8,110,265	67.39	6,950,508	85.70	57.75
2008-10-26	Mayors	12,035,307	8,110,265	67.39	6,959,075	85.81	57.82
2009-12-13	Chamber of Deputies	12,277,915	8,285,186	67.48	7,263,537	87.67	59.16
2009-12-13	Senate	N/A	2,392,477	N/A	2,053,480	85.83	N/A
2009-12-13	President	12,277,915	8,285,186	67.48	7,264,136	87.68	59.16
2010-01-17	President-Runoff	12,277,915	8,285,186	67.48	7,203,371	86.94	58.67

• ^ Voting Age Population: An estimation of the country's population over the age of 18 on the day of the election. Source: National Statistics Office (INE). Note: The INE provides data estimated for June 30 of each year disaggregated by age. Linear interpolation was applied to obtain the population for a specific day.
• ^ Source: Electoral Service (Servel) (1925-1973; 1988-2005; 2009).
• ^ Source: Interior Ministry.
• ^ Turnout as a percentage of the voting age population.

See also

• Elections in Pichilemu
• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

References

1. ^ REDIBUJANDO EL MAPA ELECTORAL CHILENO: INCIDENCIA DE FACTORES SOCIOECONÓMICOS Y GÉNERO EN LAS URNAS, DAVID ALTMAN, INSTITUTO DE CIENCIA POLÍTICA, PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE CHILE. REVISTA DE CIENCIA POLÍTICA / VOLUMEN XXIV / No 2 / 2004.
2. ^ "Coloma defiende el sistema binominal: "Ha dado estabilidad a Chile"". Emol.com. http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2011/10/26/509991/coloma-defiende-el-sistema-binominal-ha-dado-estabilidad-a-chile.html. Retrieved 2011-10-27. 
3. ^ "Una reforma necesaria: Efectos del sistema binominal [A necessary reform: Effects of the binomial system]" (in Spanish). FLACSO Chile. Santiago, Chile. January 2007. p. 32. ISBN 978-956-205-215-3. http://www.flacso.cl/publicaciones_ficha.php?publicacion_id=354. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 

External links

• Archive of recent elections (Chilean Ministry of Interior)
• Archive of past elections
• Chile's Electoral Service (Servel)
• Adam Carr's Election Archive