MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean female voters split evenly between leading presidential candidates

Conservative Piñera and former president Frei

Female voters are split practically evenly between the two Chilean leading presidential candidates, according to a new poll from human rights organization Corporación Humanas.

The poll, which was done face-to-face with 1,287 Chilean women, shows conservative candidate Sebastián Piñera slightly edging out centre-left candidate Eduardo Frei, 38.1% to 36.9%, in a run-off contest. The survey has a 3.2 percent margin of error.

Piñera would carry a first-round election handily with his 35.5%, trumping Frei’s 27.7% and Marco Enriquez-Ominami’s 12.2%. MEO, as the press has dubbed Enriquez-Ominami, is running as an independent.

Unless any of the candidates can win over 50% of the vote, the top two finishers must compete in a second round. The poll also showed a strong apathy for politics among women, with 67.8% of registered voters and 83.5% of unregistered voters describing themselves as “uninterested” or “very uninterested” in politics.

Just over 83% said they “never” or “almost never” talk about politics. Another 16.4% said they would not vote in the first round of the presidential election while 19.1% said that they would refrain from a second round between Piñera and Frei.

Exactly 25% said they’d abstain from a Piñera/Enriquez-Ominami second-round contest, leaving Piñera to win 38.4% to 27.6%.

Partisan loyalty is not an influential factor, said respondents, who listed a candidate’s personal characteristics and governmental programs as the leading factors in their decision, at 33.7% each. Another 11.3% listed the candidate’s political party as the most important factor; 5.6% said that they would base their decisions principally on which coalition supports each candidate.

Piñera was listed as the candidate most likely to prevent violence against women and to find equal jobs for women in his presidential term. Enriquez-Ominami is seen as most likely to protect the rights of “homosexuals, lesbians and other sexual identities,” while Frei constitutes the candidate most likely to increase women’s participation in politics and legalize abortion when a mother’s life is in danger.

Respondents overwhelmingly approved of outgoing leader Michelle Bachelet, the country’s first woman president. They gave Bachelet a resounding 79% approval rating, a marked increase from 2007’s 39% and 2008’s 45%.

Her efforts toward women’s rights, closeness with the people and honesty were listed as her top attributes, with 80.3% saying that women’s rights had advanced during her term.

Bachelet’s best move, according to the poll, was the increase in the per-child pension given to women, which 34.3% listed as her top policy.

By Daniel Zarchy - Santiago Times