MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean conservative presidential hopeful leads opinion poll

Candidate Sebastian Piñera

Chilean conservative presidential hopeful Sebastián Piñera is ten percentage points ahead over Eduardo Frei the ruling coalition candidate for next November’s election according to the latest public opinion poll released Friday.

The simple question “which candidate are you planning to vote?” received 33% replies for Piñera and 23% for Frei. And who’s the next president?, 46% for the conservative and 36% for the former president.

However the number of undecided remains the highest: 41% of Chileans replied they still don’t know whom they will vote for

When asked if they could change their vote in coming months, 38% admitted so, while 62% said they remain behind their choice. The poll shows that the most volatile supporters are those of Mr. Piñera, since 41% could change their vote compared to only 28% of Mr. Frei followers.

A collateral question referred to the international crisis and its impact on Chile, a majority of interviews said that so far “it has been superficial”, 66%. In a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), how has it impacted on your family, the average reply was 4.9.