Left makes significant gains as nation goes to the polls
Monday 29 October 2012
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EmailChile's left made big gains in the weekend's municipal elections as millions of previously disenfranchised voters cast their ballots for the first time.
In elections for 345 mayors and 2,224 council seats the combined left won 43 per cent of the vote compared to 37 per cent for the ruling right-wing alliance.
Big winners included Carolina Toha, who won leadership of central Santiago. Ms Toha, whose father was tortured and killed by Augusto Pinochet 's regime, has gained popularity for siding with Chile's students in their ongoing battle for free education.
And Maya Fernandez Allende - granddaughter of former socialist president Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by Pinochet in 1973 - won the capital's district of Nunoa.
The weekend's vote was the first with an electorate expanded from 8.1 million citizens to 13.4 million, after the government caved in to left demands to automatically register all adult citizens.
But an end to compulsory voting saw turnout drop proportionally to just 40 per cent of the electorate.
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