MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean presidential hopeful Matthei 'embarrassed' by the 'poll festival'

Polls coincide that Matthei is trailing favorite former president Bachelet

Chile's ruling-party candidate Evelyn Matthei said she is “embarrassed” by the “poll festival” that shows opposition candidate Michelle Bachelet as the clear front-runner ahead of the country’s November 17 presidential election. Several polls have shown former president Bachelet could have enough votes to win in the first round of voting.

 “Don’t believe any of these surveys. There’s a festival of polls that is almost embarrassing,” Matthei told journalists who wanted her opinion on the latest survey’s results.

“We won’t make any projections. It’s been proven that all those estimates get it wrong,” she added.

Over the weekend Matthei’s team called on “traditional rightist” voters and independents to cast their ballots on November 17 to allow Matthei to reach a second round of voting scheduled for December.

Ruling-party Senator Francisco Chahuán said that after comparing the two candidates’ policy platforms, “it is clear that they are miles apart, so that’s why we are going to ask the Alianza’s traditional voters, and even the independent voters who helped elect President Sebastián Piñera, not to abstain from voting”.

The ruling Alianza is strongly divided over issues related to the campaign and even candidate Matthei attitudes, and there are fears many might opt for abstaining.

However Senator Lily Pérez, the spokeswoman for Matthei, insisted that there is going to be a second round between Bachelet and former Labor minister Matthei: “There is going to be a runoff and it will have two women facing each other.”

According to poll results released on Saturday by Opina Research — and published by Santiago newspaper El Comercio, Bachelet and Matthei will take 46.2% and 21.7% of the vote respectively.

A different survey by Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP) released last week showed similar results: Bachelet with 47% of the total votes and Matthei with 14%.