Enriquez-Ominami Shakes Up Chilean Race
Enriquez-Ominami Shakes Up Chilean Race
By
Caitlin Miner-Le Grand
A newcomer has transformed the generally staid chess match of Chilean politics into a lively three-horse race ahead of December’s presidential elections. But some suggest Marco Enríquez-Ominami short political career renders his campaign more flash than substance.
A charismatic newcomer using “change” as his keyword is making waves in Chile’s presidential campaign. Marco Enríquez-Ominami remains a long shot; opposition candidate Sebastian Piñera leads in the polls. With the governing Concertación coalition already fielding former President Eduardo Frei as its official candidate, Enríquez-Ominami resigned from the Partido Socialista on Friday June 12 (his thirty-sixth birthday) to run as an independent. He must gather 36,000 signatures by September to make his candidacy official. Still, the upheaval created by his campaign has transformed the generally staid chess match of Chilean politics into a lively three-horse race far ahead of the December elections.
Young voters disenchanted with Chilean politics helped propel Enríquez-Ominami from relative obscurity to a viable independent candidate. A mixture of pop and politics also fueled his rise: the filmmaker parlayed popularity into a legislative seat in 2006 and he has a family background that reads like a who’s who of Chile’s leftist party leaders. Comparisons have been drawn between the young Chilean and U.S. President Barack Obama, given Enríquez-Ominami’s relative newness to the political scene as well as his use of web 2.0 to drum up support (he has over 40,000 Facebook fans).
Yet Enríquez-Ominami’s short political career and lack of major legislative accomplishments have some analysts suggesting that his campaign is more flash than substance. Enríquez-Ominami himself recognizes that voter dissatisfaction drives his support base. “Many people voting for me, I’m sure, aren’t doing it for me. They’re voting against what the others are offering,” he told Spain’s El País in an interview.
While President Michelle Bachelet enjoys a 75 percent approval rating, the majority of Chileans disapprove of the governing Concertación coalition. After almost two decades in power, critics say the coalition fell short on combating inequality and appears unable to bring anything new to the table. As the Concertación candidate, Frei hasn’t inspired much enthusiasm from voters eager for something new.
Piñera, the candidate for the conservative La Alianza coalition, leads the race. He was considered a presidential shoo-in early on after the strong showing of his Renovación Nacional party in the 2008 local elections. But the most recent round of IPSOS polls show his support dropped from 44 to 34 percent while Frei and Enríquez-Ominami command 24 and 22.8 percent respectively. Enríquez-Ominami, first seen as a threat to Frei, appears to be eating into Piñera’s lead. A contributing factor could be that Enríquez-Ominami’s platform borrows from both sides, including proposals like raising taxes on large businesses and the wealthy as well as calls for increased private investment in state-run industries.
No candidate commands an absolute majority, so signs point toward a second round run-off. Piñera still holds an edge according to second-round polls, but almost 18 percent of voters remain undecided in the case of a runoff election. In the words of Enríquez-Ominami: “There’s seven months left, and seven months are a decade in politics.”
AS/COA’s Juan Cruz Díaz blogs for Americas Quarterly about the excitement surrounding Enríquez-Ominami’s candidacy.
AS/COA hosts its annual conference in Santiago on July 2, featuring the finance ministers of Chile, Canada, and Peru.
