The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Bachelet the front-runner as Chileans vote for new president
- Honduran presidential candidate unhurt after helicopter crash
- Seven bodies found in hidden graves near Acapulco - reports
| Bachelet the front-runner as Chileans vote for new president Posted: SANTIAGO (Reuters) - As Chileans head to voting booths on Sunday to pick who will lead the country for the next four years, the biggest question mark is whether former President Michelle Bachelet wins outright or needs to wait for a December runoff. The centre-left Bachelet has promised to narrow the worst income inequality among the 34 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development by levelling the playing field in education. She has also pledged to upend a constitution that dates back to Augusto Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship. Her Nueva Mayoria (New Majority) coalition, which spans the political spectrum from communists to moderate Christian Democrats, must also win big in congressional elections on Sunday in order to muster the political might needed to implement those changes. "In order to confront inequality, I invite you to vote en masse for the Nueva Mayoria this Sunday. We want to win in the first round because we have a lot of work to do," Bachelet told a packed crowd at her campaign's closing ceremony on Thursday. Trailing a distant second to the 62-year-old Bachelet in the polls is Evelyn Matthei, 60, the candidate for the governing right-wing Alianza coalition. A candidate winning over half the votes would be elected outright - something that has not happened in 20 years. Otherwise, the two top contenders will go head to head on December 15. One recent poll of likely voters suggested Bachelet may get the votes she needs for a first-round victory. But other polls have shown that support for the eight other candidates, including Matthei, maverick economist Franco Parisi and former socialist congressman Marco Enriquez-Ominami, could fracture the vote and push Bachelet into a second round against Matthei. In any case, pollsters and political analysts believe Bachelet would easily win a runoff against Matthei. Bachelet, who held the presidency from 2006 to 2010, was constitutionally barred from seeking immediate re-election after her first term, but left office enjoying stratospheric popularity. The Andean country, the world's top copper producer, moved to a voluntary voting system from a compulsory one last year, injecting a dose of uncertainty into electoral forecasts. All 120 lower house seats and 20 out of 38 Senate seats are also being contested on Sunday. Under the Chilean system, the governing coalition needs more than a simple majority to pass some kinds of legislation, making it easier for the opposition to block key reforms - a Pinochet-era legacy that Bachelet wants to change. In a bid to curb Alianza's power, Bachelet has been urging voters to back her coalition's congressional candidates. Still, she is bound to face tough negotiations with the right to steer through her proposed reforms. ROAD TO THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE Bachelet proposes to raise corporate taxes to 25 percent from their current 20 percent and close a business tax loophole to finance an education overhaul. Matthei contends that could hurt economic growth and slow corporate investments. Chile has boasted average annual economic growth of over 5 percent and made enormous headway toward eradicating extreme poverty in the more than 20 years since the return to democracy. But the mining powerhouse - home to a third of global copper output and some of the region's most powerful companies, including LATAM Airlines, retailer Cencosud and industrial conglomerate Empresas Copec - still has work to do to join the ranks of developed countries. Its highly stratified education system was at the heart of student protests that exploded in 2011 to demand free and improved schooling, shaking the political and business elite. Camila Vallejo, who shot to fame as the face of the student movement, is running for a seat in the lower house on Sunday. "Inequality is Chile's huge scar," Bachelet told the spirited, flag-waving crowd on Thursday. "It's our main obstacle and the stone in our shoe when we really think about becoming a modern country." Bachelet's down-to-earth, affable manner and her personal history, which is intimately tied to the nation's tumultuous past, have helped propel her past Matthei. Bachelet and her father were victims of torture during the Pinochet years, while Matthei's father was a general in the dictatorship's 1973-1990 junta. That association, along with Matthei's penchant for off-the-cuff expletives, her late entry into the presidential race and public disenchantment with incumbent President Sebastian Pinera, has hurt the right-wing candidate's chances. Votes will be cast from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time (1100 to 2100 GMT) and the first partial results are scheduled to be reported by the national electoral service at 7:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) or when 20 percent of votes have been counted. |
| Honduran presidential candidate unhurt after helicopter crash Posted: TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' ruling party presidential candidate, Juan Hernandez, escaped unhurt after the helicopter in which he was travelling crashed on Saturday, a spokesman for his National Party said. Hernandez was travelling with his wife and three members of his campaign team to a rally in the city of Juticalpa, 80 miles (130 km) east of the capital, Tegucigalpa, when the helicopter crashed from a low altitude. "Thanks to God that we are OK," the candidate said on Twitter. "The helicopter started to have mechanical problems. They heard some noises and it started to drop, and as it fell, the tail split off," said the spokesman, adding nobody was injured in the accident. Authorities have not commented on possible causes of the crash. Hernandez, the 45-year-old head of Honduras' Congress, is in a tight race with leftist candidate Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted former President Manuel Zelaya. The election is November 24. Hernandez resumed his journey in another helicopter after the accident. |
| Seven bodies found in hidden graves near Acapulco - reports Posted: MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The bodies of seven people were found buried in several hidden graves in a rural area near the Mexican resort city of Acapulco, local media reported on Saturday. An anonymous caller alerted police to bodies buried in the town of El Cayaco near the Pacific coast in Guerrero state, the reports said. The seven bodies, all men, were found in five graves, magazine El Proceso said on its website. The bodies were already decomposed, the newspaper Reforma said. Six other bodies were found on Thursday in hidden graves in El Salto, another small town in the rural area outside of Acapulco, once a fashionable international resort. On Friday, 18 bodies were found buried in several buildings in Michoacan, which borders Guerrero to the north. Almost 80,000 people have died since former President Felipe Calderon launched a campaign against drug cartels in 2006. Since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office last December, the number of killings has fallen slightly. But the violence has continued and even spread to new areas, with no major changes in security strategy, according to analysts. (Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez; Editing by Peter Cooney) |
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