MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Magallanes solid surge for Bachelet

Magallanes was the region with the fourth highest support for Chilean elected president Ms Michelle Bachelet in last Sunday's run off. Actually Magallanes votes for Ms Bachelet surged almost seven points between the December and second round, from 51.2% to 57.9%.

Sunday's run off forecasts suggested Ms Bachelet would garner a maximum 55%

The Conservative candidate Sebastian Piñera on the other hand was not even able to retain the 44.24% of the first round since he only managed 42.04% in Sunday's runoff.

Local political experts believe the surge in support for Ms Bachelet can be tracked to the Communist vote that was called to back her, 5.2%. Plus the Humanist party whose rank and file apparently disobeyed the leadership's instructions to vote blank (4.21%).

Another factor is that the conservative coalition Alliance in Magallanes region is more loyal to junior partner Joaquin Lavin, and it is believed some of them stayed at home or simply crossed lines and voted for Ms Bachelet.

However the number of votes last Sunday in Magallanes dropped approximately 9% compared to the December round from 72.176 to 65.729. This represents 6.500 votes less.

Meantime in the only polling booth in Antarctica, Mr. Piñera defeated Ms Bachelet 16 to 10 votes. The result was quite a dramatic change from the December 11 round when Thomas Hirsch supported by Communists and Humanists garnered 18 votes, followed by Piñera 15, Bachelet 12 and Joaquin Lavin 8.

The Chilean Antarctic base in King George Island, "Villa las Estrellas" has 208 people in the Voting registry, mostly Air Force personnel, but only 28 turned out to cast a ballot.