Campaign Ends With Mass Rallies in Chile

Thu Jan 12, 2006
By EDUARDO GALLARDO, Associated Press Writer

SANTIAGO, Chile - Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Chile's two main cities Thursday for the final campaign rallies of the two candidates in Chile's presidential runoff vote, with polls showing socialist Michele Bachelet holding a narrow lead.

Bachelet, a pediatrician and former defense minister, told more than 50,000 supporters in the capital Santiago that she is convinced she will be elected Chile's first female president and vowed "a government of national unity."

She paid tribute to the victims of repression and human rights abuses under the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, which she called "the darkest time in Chile's history." Bachelet herself was briefly jailed and tortured under Pinochet.

In Valparaiso, the country's second-largest city, multimillionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera was cheered by more than 10,000 people as he vowed to create one million jobs and curb crime if elected.

Bachelet, 54, and Pinera, 56, faceoff Sunday after a first round of voting among four candidates on Dec. 11 failed to produce a victor with a majority. Bachelet placed first with 45.9 percent of the vote followed by Pinera with 25.4 percent.

By law, all campaigns activities must end at midnight Thursday.

Bachelet led in all pre-election opinion polls. The last poll, published Thursday by the independent research agency Mori, gave her 45 percent of the vote to Pinera's 40 percent.

Her rally opened with a musical show led by four top Spanish singers who said they performed for free as a show of support. They were Miguel Bose, Ana Belen, Victor Manuel and Ismael Serrano.

She vowed to work "to build a country where nobody will be sentenced to live in poverty, where day after day we will work toward an even freer society."

Both candidates stressed the central points of their platforms, which have many similarities, such as fighting unemployment and poverty, improving public health and education, and fighting crime.

Pinera criticized the outgoing government of President Ricardo Lagos, supported by the same center-left coalition that backs Bachelet and has ruled since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. He said the coalition has failed to solve the nation's problems.

"We need a change of government after these 16 years," Pinera said.

He promised to create jobs, give pensions to the housewives and reduce crime.

"We will build a more just country. We will erase inequities among Chileans," he said. "We should not care only about filling our pockets, because that could empty our souls."

Both candidates appeared with their families — Bachelet with her three children and Pinera with his wife and four children.
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