MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean unofficial hopeful presidential candidates line up

Though ostensibly keeping a low profile until this month's municipal elections are over, Chile's main political parties are showing unmistakable signs of intra-party conflict regarding the 2009 presidential race

With just a year to go before the presidential elections, five unofficial candidates from Chile's two main political blocs are dominating media attention. Four of these contenders are from the same coalition - the governing centre-left Concertación coalition. Best known is former President Ricardo Lagos from the Socialist Party (PS). Lagos, despite having claimed recently that he was not going to run for president, has left many – including his own party members – speculating otherwise. After Lagos' declaration, a group of Concertación legislators caused a stir within the coalition by formally asking him to be their candidate. Among the annoyed was Lagos' former Minster of the Interior and former right-hand man, José Miguel Insulza, who is currently secretary general of the Organization of American States. Insulza is also a potential candidate for the PS, and while he has refused to comment on the possibility of the Concertación having one presidential candidate for each of its four parties, he did say, "My candidacy hurts Lagos' and his hurts mine." The two other possible Concertación candidates from the Christian Democratic Party (DC) are Soledad Alvear and former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. According to a recent survey done by GiroPais (from September 25 to October 6), of the four Concertación candidates, Insulza would be the most likely to win against Sebastián Piñera, the conservative National Renovation Party (RN)'s unofficial candidate. Over 36% of those polled said they would vote for Insulza against Piñera. The second most popular against Piñera was Frei, then Alvear, and, lastly, Lagos. Indeed, in the same poll, when asked, "Who would you not want to be president under any circumstances?" 29.6% answered Lagos, and 24% answered Piñera. Piñera is currently far ahead in most polls. In Chile's last presidential election, the owner of LAN airlines and Chilevisión lost to Michelle Bachelet by only six percent, and he's still enjoying high popularity. The rightist Alianza political coalition, which the RN co-pilots with the far-right Independent Democratic Union Party (UDI), is currently discussing whether to put a UDI candidate forward or exclusively support Piñera. After dropping out as UDI candidate, Joaquín Lavín addressed the Alianza last week, urging restraint and saying it would not be "dramatic" if the UDI did not propose its own candidate. UDI Senator Evelyn Matthei, who publicly announced her presidential aspirations last Tuesday before being unanimously rejected by her party, disagreed with Lavín: "Our party must be prepared for any scenario, and this means having two Alianza candidates." Against this backdrop of rampant "presidentialitis," an unconventional survey by GiroPais Subjetiva in October gave further insight Wednesday into the chances of the five main contenders for the 2009 presidency. The survey included questions like "Who would be most likely to give blood?"; "Who seemed happiest when the Teletón (Chilean charity fundraiser) reached its goal?"; "Who would butt in line in a bank?"; "Who would become paralyzed with fear during an earthquake?" The questions were an attempt to illustrate the ever-so-important public images of the contenders. Piñera was voted most likely to give blood but also most likely to side-step a wounded person on the street. He is also considered most likely to lie on his tax forms and least likely to heed lines and red lights. Lagos, still paying for his role in the Transantiago mass transit debacle that Bachelet's government has had to clean up, was voted by a huge margin "most likely to blame others when something goes wrong." Though some may call it sexism, Alvear was voted by far as the most likely to become paralyzed with fear during an earthquake or lose control when confronted with a crisis. The Santiago Times