MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bachelet returns to Chile for primaries; good chances of becoming opposition presidential candidate

She was the first woman president of Chile and left office with exceptional support

Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet who resigned to her job as the Executive Director of UN Women is to be proclaimed as the leading presidential candidate at the opposition parties primary elections to be held next April 13. She has very good chances of repeating her four year period, according to public opinion polls.

“Once back in Chile Ms Bachelet will make an official announcement about her willingness to dispute the presidency”, said Carmen Andrade a Socialist party official and close to the former president. The proclamation of her candidacy will be jointly held between the Socialist party (to which she belongs) and the Party for Democracy, two of the forces from the centre left coalition that ruled Chile since the return of democracy in 1990 until 2010 when the current conservative leader Sebastian Piñera took office.

Andrade said that on 12 April both parties will formally register their candidates independently, as marked by law, for the primaries scheduled for June 30. “But on April 13 the two parties will jointly proclaim Michelle Bachelet as our presidential candidate for the coalition’s primary in June”.

“Bachelet is the hope of many people in Chile, and she will participate in all the necessary debates; we know the conservative right is dead scared of Michelle who was our first woman president, but above all a great president (2006/2010) for the needy and vulnerable Chileans, and respected by all citizens”.

Andrade went on to say that Ms Bachelet has become “a world figure and this makes us all Chileans very proud”.

In the June 30 primaries, the former president will be fighting with the Christian Democrats hopeful Claudio Orrego, independent Andres Velasco (who was Bachelet’ Finance minister) and Senator Jose Antonio Gomez from the Radical Social-democrats party, a junior political organization.

On that same day the conservative coalition will be holding its own primary with Laurence Golborne, former Public Works minister supported by the Independent Democratic Union, UDI and Andres Allamand, former Defence minister and the candidate of National Renovation (RN) that belongs to President Piñera.

“When Bachelet returns she will find a far better country than what she left”, said Allamand who emphasized that under the administration of President Piñera economic growth has expanded and unemployment has fallen dramatically. “The coalition that supports Bachelet is only interested in their ambition of power”.

“During the time of Bachelet the economy was flat, enterprises were unable to take off and unemployment was significant, and when she arrives from overseas she will realize that many of the promises from the Concertacion governments have been achieved by this administration of President Piñera” pointed out Allamand.

“Most probably the only thing she will find unchanged is the worn out coalition that supports her, a grouping of different forces which includes the Communist party and are going all out for her support”.

Chilean national and presidential elections are scheduled for December this year.