MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Municipal elections in Chile advance a cabinet reshuffle

Perez Yoma ?people want new faces, a renovation”.

Setbacks in Sunday's municipal elections appear to have pushed Chile's president to shake up her Cabinet, according to Interior minister Edmundo Perez Yoma.

President Michelle Bachelet "has told us that during November she will talk with every minister to determine who will stay and decide on the changes she wants to make" said Perez Yoma adding that "people want new faces, a renovation". Bachelet's Coalition for Democracy topped nationwide voting for city councilmen, but the opposition Alliance for Chile won the most mayoral votes and captured Chile's largest cities, including Santiago, Concepcion and Valparaiso. Presidential spokesman Francisco Vidal admitted that the loss in 345 mayoral races "hurt." He also admitted a cabinet reshuffle but not as "an imperative immediate need". Perez Yoma did not elaborate on expected Cabinet changes, and some ministers are expected to resign anyway to run for Congress in December 2009. The law mandates that candidates must leave their posts at least one year before the election, when the next president also will be elected. Sunday's local elections left the opposition conservative National Renewal party the largest political force in the country, with 16.1% of the vote. The Christian Democrats, the senior partner in Bachelet's coalition, dropped four points to 15.4%, while Bachelet's Socialist Party remained virtually unchanged at 11.1%. According to the final official vote count from the Chilean Ministry of Interior, which separates mayors from councilors vote, the ruling coalition was defeated by the conservative Alianza at mayor level while with the seats for city legislative branches the opposite happened. For mayors, Democratic Concertacion garnered 28.71% of the vote which added to Progressive Concertacion totals 38.46%, while the conservative Alianza, 40.56%, with the rest split among smaller groupings and independents. At council level the Democratic Concertacion plus the Progressive Concertacion totaled 45.24% (27.9% and 17.34%) while the Alianza 35.99%.