Aldo Anfossi
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, October 28, 2024, p. 25
Santiago. Preliminary figures from the municipal and gubernatorial elections held in Chile over the weekend show mixed results for both the center-left ruling party and the right-wing opposition, which appeared to have a slight advantage in winning the mayoralties.
With 84 percent of the vote, the right-wing coalition Chile Vamos obtained 35.9 of the votes, the ruling party united in Contigo Chile Mejor added 31.9 percent, while the independent candidates 29.3 percent, which allowed it to win 101 mayoralties.
Regarding the dispute for the 16 regional governorships, only five had definitive results, in four of which the center-left triumphed. In the remaining 11 there will be a second round in a month, since none of the candidates obtained the necessary 40 percent to be elected in the first round.
Currently, the ruling party is in control of 15 of the 16 regions, a result that will undoubtedly not be repeated.
In the race for the country’s 345 mayoralties, with 84 percent of the polls counted, the ruling party lost 40, going from 150 under its control to 111.
The center-left suffered significant defeats, for example, in the emblematic commune of Santiago, where the communist mayor Irací Hassler categorically lost the re-election, finishing with 28.4 percent, against the former police officer and former minister Mario Desbordes, with 51.
The other side of this took place in the municipality of Maipú, adjacent to Santiago, where the young Broad Front mayor Tomás Vodánovic, 34, managed to be reelected with more than 70 percent of the votes, a result that, according to analysts, clearly projects as a presidential figure for 2025.
But he categorically rejects that possibility: My commitment is to stay the next four years working for my neighbors, I am not going to show any disrespecthe said last night.
As for the opposition, the available results indicate that its participation in municipal governments will increase from 87 to 120.
One of the big surprises of the night took place in the Santiago municipality of Las Condes, the wealthiest in the country, where the far-right Marcela Cubillos Sigall suffered an unexpected defeat against a contender from the liberal right, Catalina San Martín, who obtained 39.9. percent of the vote, who defeated her against all odds by a narrow advantage of 8 tenths of a point.
Cubillos, a clear favorite until a month ago, was at the center of a scandal when it was revealed that with very few hours as a teacher and without any relevant academic work, even living abroad, he received a salary equivalent to about 20 thousand dollars a month from a university, remuneration well above the average for academics and rectors. She, who seemed to project herself as an eventual presidential candidate, paid the cost of the arrogance with which she defended receiving that amount.
