2005–06 Chilean general election

General elections were held in Chile on Sunday, 11 December 2005 to elect the president and members of the National Congress. None of the four presidential candidates received an absolute majority, leading to a runoff election between the top two candidates — Michelle Bachelet from the Coalition of Parties for Democracy and Sebastián Piñera from National Renewal — on Sunday, 15 January 2006. Bachelet was victorious with 53.49% of the vote. She succeeded President Ricardo Lagos on 11 March 2006, for a period of four years, after Congress reformed the Constitution in September 2005 and reduced the term from six years.

2005–06 Chilean general election

Presidential election
11 December 2005 (first round) 15 January 2006 (second round)
Turnout	87.67% (first round) 2.28pp 87.12% (second round) 0.55pp
Candidate Michelle Bachelet Sebastián Piñera Party Socialist National Renewal Alliance Concertación Alliance Popular vote 3,723,019 3,236,394 Percentage 53.50% 46.50%
President before election Ricardo Lagos For Democracy Elected President Michelle Bachelet Socialist
Chamber of Deputies
11 December 2005
All 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 61 seats needed for a majority
Party Vote % Seats +/– Concertación 51.76 65 +3 Alliance 38.72 54 −3 FRI 1.17 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Senate
11 December 2005
20 of 38 seats in the Senate
Party Vote % Seats +/– Concertación 51.32 20 0 Alliance 37.25 17 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Electoral system

The president was elected using the two-round system. All of the 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were contested, while 20 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election (even-numbered regions and the metropolitan region). Deputies serve for a period of four years, while senators serve for a period of eight years. Reelection is permitted.

A unique binomial system was used for election of Chamber of Deputies. These system rewards coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for each electoral district's two Chamber seats. Typically, the two largest coalitions in a district divided the seats, one each, among themselves. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than two-to-one did the winning coalition gain both seats. with seats allocated using the simple quotient.

Presidential candidates

Michelle Bachelet (Socialist Party of Chile)

Bachelet, who led in every major poll, served as Health Minister before President Lagos named her as Chile's first female Defense Minister in 2002. She was supported by the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, which has governed Chile since 1990. The coalition groups four parties: the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Socialist Party (PS), and the Social Democrat Radical Party (PRSD).

Up until May 2005 two candidates vied for the coalition's nomination: Soledad Alvear (PDC) and Michelle Bachelet (PS). A primary was scheduled to be held on 31 July 2005, to choose the nominee. Political polls in Chile indicated that either candidate would trounce the right-wing Alliance nominee Joaquín Lavín in a two-person race. The political atmosphere changed, however, when another Alianza candidate came to the scene: businessman Sebastián Piñera from the center-right National Renewal. This led, among other reasons, to the withdrawal of Soledad Alvear from the Concertación nomination on 24 May 2005.

Tomás Hirsch (Humanist Party)

Hirsch, a Humanist, ran as his party's nominee for president for 1999 obtaining 0.5%. On this election he ran with the support of the political pact Juntos Podemos Más (Together We Can Do More), which is made up mainly of the legally constituted Communist and Humanist parties plus other political groups and social organizations. In previous elections the candidates presented independently by the pact's parties were consistently in third place, behind the two major coalitions, and holding poll numbers in the single-digit level.

To elect a single candidate a national public survey was held on 28 May 2005. On 5 June 2005, an assembly elected Humanist Tomás Hirsch as their final candidate. Other pre-candidates included: Julián Alcayaga (Committee for the Defense of Copper) and Nicolás García (Block for Socialism). Two candidates withdrew before the survey and gave their support to Hirsch: Tomás Moulian (Communist) and Manuel Jacques (Christian Left). One candidate withdrew before the assembly: Jorge Pavez (Social Force).

Joaquín Lavín (Independent Democratic Union)

Lavín ran as the Alliance's nominee for president in 1999, losing in a tight 2000 runoff to Lagos. Considered for a long time prior to the 2005 election as the Alliance's unique candidate, as the contest drew nearer, however, his public persona began to lose credibility, perhaps due to a mediocre mayorship of the Santiago municipality the previous years, and his candidacy began to lose steam, to the point that it was called into question. RN, the Alliance's other party, decided to compete with Lavín with a candidate of their own (Piñera), breaking up the Alliance's unity in the election.

Sebastián Piñera (National Renewal)

Piñera was proclaimed a candidate by the National Renewal party on 14 May 2005. His nomination caused discomfort within the Independent Democratic Union (UDI—its fellow coalition party member), as both parties were supposed to support Lavín as the single coalition candidate. A primary proposed by UDI to elect a single candidate representing the Alliance was rejected by RN. Piñera's nomination was welcomed by the public and won quick support in opinion polls.

Rejected candidacy

The independent Mapuche candidate Aucán Huilcamán registered his nomination on 12 September, but it was rejected three days later by the Electoral Commission (Servicio Electoral) due to his failure to obtain the minimum number of signatures required by law for an independent candidacy. Huilcamán appealed using the argument that in the past parliamentary election there was a law created specifically to help the candidates of the Christian Democracy Party re-register their candidacies. After the support given to Huilcamán by other candidates, the government sent a bill to Congress, with immediate discussion, to extend the time of registration; a bill that would have also helped 17 other candidacies that were rejected by the Electoral Service. Nonetheless the bill was rejected by a lack of quorum, denying Huilcamán a possible place in the ballot.

Parliamentary election

The Chamber of Deputies prior to this election was composed of 62 CPD deputies (23 Christian Democrats, 20 PPD, ten Socialists, six PRSD and three independents), 57 APC deputies (31 UDI, 18 RN and eight independents) and one independent (off-pact).

The Senate prior to this election was composed of 38 directly elected senators and nine non-elected senators (institutional senators, or senators for life). Among the elected, 20 seats are held by the CPD (eleven Christian Democrats, five Socialists, three PPD and one PRSD) and 18 by the APC (six independents, six UDI and six RN). A constitutional reform in 2005 eliminated non-elected senators starting on 11 March 2006, the day the newly elected senators were sworn in.

Of the Senate seats being contested, eleven were held by the CPD (ten Christian Democrats and one Socialist) and nine by the APC (four independents, three UDI and two RN).

Campaign

Debates

There were two scheduled debates between the presidential candidates during the first round, both including all four candidates. A third televised debate was dismissed by the respective campaign teams. However, during the second debate, Tomás Hirsch said he was open to a third debate.

The first debate, titled Foro Presidencial: Chile 2005, organized by the Latin American station CNN en Español and the local Canal 13, took place on 19 October, at 10 p.m., at Espacio Riesco in Santiago. It ran for one hour, giving each candidate ten minutes to answer seven questions, giving priority to national issues. There was no studio audience. It was hosted by Glenda Umaña (CNN en Español) and Constanza Santa María (Canal 13).

The second debate took place on 16 November at 10 p.m., at the CasaPiedra venue in Santiago. It was organized by Anatel (National Television Association), and was broadcast by Canal 13, TVN, Megavisión and Chilevisión, with TVN in charge of production. Running for one hour and 40 minutes, a question was asked to each candidate by a panel of four journalists. The four candidates were seated behind desks on stage, instead of standing at podiums as they had done in the first debate.

Prior to the second round, Bachelet and Piñera held a televised debate on 4 January 2006, which was organized by Anatel and broadcast by the four main over-the-air television channels. A Time Research poll showed that Bachelet was the winner of the debate with 49%, against 41% for Piñera. On the other hand, another poll, by El Mercurio-Opina, showed that Piñera won the debate with 43.3% of the preferences against 42.9% for Bachelet.

Piñera offered Bachelet to hold a second debate before the election, to discuss regional issues, but this was rejected by Bachelet's campaign team. Bachelet also turned down a radio debate with Piñera.

Opinion polls

June/July 2005 opinion poll results

October/November 2005 opinion poll results

December 2005/January 2006 opinion poll results

Opinion polls released after Sebastián Piñera's entrance and Soledad Alvear's withdrawal showed Michelle Bachelet leading the right-wing candidates (Piñera and Joaquín Lavín) by a wide margin, but below the 50% plus 1 vote needed to win the election, a situation that would lead to a runoff in which, according to the same polls, she would comfortably defeat any of the two right-wing candidates. Some analysts commented that in some of these polls Bachelet would indeed have obtained an absolute majority in the first round, if blanks were discarded and undecided votes were evenly distributed among candidates. However, later opinion polls released nearer the election showed a decline of Bachelet in favor of Piñera and Tomás Hirsch, showing more clearly that the election would be decided in a runoff.

The first opinion poll released after the first round, published by El Mercurio-Opina on 18 December, had Bachelet with 42.8%, Piñera with 37.5% and 19.7% undecided. Later opinion polls showed similar results, except for one poll showing Piñera above Bachelet by 1%. The polls released showed on average that Bachelet maintained an advantage over Piñera above 5%, but with a large number of voters (18%) still undecided or that would not declare a preference. If this last percentage was removed from the vote, then Bachelet, the polls showed, would have won the presidency by a margin above 7%, which was accurate with the final results of the election.

Results

President

Strength of Bachelet's vote by administrative region. A deeper magenta indicates a higher percentage of the vote obtained by Bachelet in that region.

The first government announcement regarding election results came at 6:30 p.m. local time (21:30 GMT), and included information from around 12% of polling stations counted. Subsequent preliminary results were announced during the day by the Interior Ministry undersecretary and published on a special Internet site. These results indicated that the election was to be decided in a runoff on 15 January 2006, in which Michelle Bachelet would face Sebastián Piñera. Official and final results, validated by the Electoral Tribunal (Tricel), were published on the Diario Oficial (official gazette) on 27 December 2005, and made the runoff election official.

On election day, at 9:30 p.m. local time, before the third preliminary results were announced, Joaquín Lavín conceded a second-place defeat in the election and said he would support Sebastián Piñera in the runoff election. Later in the day, JPM candidate Tomás Hirsch said he would nullify his vote in the upcoming runoff; an opinion which was objected by the pact's Communist wing, which said they would support Bachelet if five proposals delivered to her were accepted and incorporated into the candidate's government program; these proposals dealt with changing the electoral system and granting workers more rights.

The runoff election between Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera took place on 15 January 2006.

Final results were announced on 30 January 2006, by the Electoral Tribunal. They indicated that Michelle Bachelet won the presidency with 53.49% of the votes classified as valid, 51.98% of the total votes cast, and 45.28% support of registered voters.

Sebastián Piñera conceded defeat immediately following a government announcement made on election day that included results from 97.52% of ballot boxes counted.

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Michelle Bachelet	Concertación (PS)	3,190,691	45.96	3,723,019	53.50
	Sebastián Piñera	National Renewal	1,763,694	25.41	3,236,394	46.50
	Joaquín Lavín	Independent Democratic Union	1,612,608	23.23
	Tomás Hirsch	Juntos Podemos Más (PH)	375,048	5.40
Total			6,942,041	100.00	6,959,413	100.00
Valid votes			6,942,041	96.32	6,959,413	97.17
Invalid/blank votes			265,237	3.68	202,932	2.83
Total votes			7,207,278	100.00	7,162,345	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			8,220,897	87.67	8,220,897	87.12
Source: SERVEL (first round) SERVEL (second round)

Senate

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats
						Won	Not up	Total
	Concertación		Christian Democratic Party	1,418,089	29.72	5	2	7
			Socialist Party	576,045	12.07	4	4	8
			Party for Democracy	512,296	10.74	1	2	3
			Social Democratic Radical Party	114,515	2.40	1	1	2
			Independents	38,053	0.80	0	0	0
		Total		2,658,998	55.73	11	9	20
	Alliance		Independent Democratic Union	1,028,925	21.57	5	4	9
			National Renewal	515,185	10.80	3	5	8
			Independents	233,180	4.89	0	0	0
		Total		1,777,290	37.25	8	9	17
	Juntos Podemos Más		Communist Party	104,687	2.19	0	0	0
			Humanist Party	69,927	1.47	0	0	0
			Independents	111,460	2.34	0	0	0
		Total		286,074	6.00	0	0	0
	Independent Regionalist Force		National Alliance of Independents	13,076	0.27	0	0	0
			Independents	17,268	0.36	0	0	0
		Total		60,688	1.27	0	0	0
	Independents			18,275	0.38	1	0	1
Total				4,770,981	100.00	20	18	38
Valid votes				4,770,981	92.06
Invalid/blank votes				411,243	7.94
Total votes				5,182,224	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				5,863,704	88.38
Source: Election Resources, Psephos

Chamber of Deputies

Party or alliance				Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Concertación		Christian Democratic Party	1,370,501	20.76	20	–3
			Party for Democracy	1,017,956	15.42	21	+1
			Socialist Party of Chile	663,561	10.05	15	+5
			Social Democratic Radical Party	233,564	3.54	7	+1
			Independents	131,625	1.99	2	–1
		Total		3,417,207	51.76	65	+3
	Alliance		Independent Democratic Union	1,475,901	22.36	33	+2
			National Renewal	932,422	14.12	19	+1
			Independents	148,063	2.24	2	–6
		Total		2,556,386	38.72	54	–3
	Juntos Podemos Más		Communist Party of Chile	339,547	5.14	0	0
			Humanist Party	102,842	1.56	0	0
			Independents	46,229	0.70	0	–
		Total		488,618	7.40	0	New
	Independent Regionalist Force		Regionalist Action Party of Chile	26,698	0.40	1	New
			National Alliance of Independents	20,191	0.31	0	New
			Independents	30,324	0.46	0	–
		Total		77,213	1.17	1	New
	Independents			62,387	0.94	0	–1
Total				6,601,811	100.00	120	0
Valid votes				6,601,811	91.60
Invalid/blank votes				605,540	8.40
Total votes				7,207,351	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				8,220,897	87.67
Source: SERVEL

Elected members

Elected candidates appear in bold. (R) indicates candidates running for re-election. Strikethrough names indicate candidacies rejected by the Electoral Service (Servel).

Chamber of Deputies

Dist.	Concertación	Alliance	Juntos Podemos Más	Independent Regionalist Force	Independents
1	Rolando Caviedes (PDC)	Ximena Valcarce (RN)	Juan Riveros (PC)	Bernardo Olivos (PAR)	Nino Baltolú
	(R) Iván Paredes (PS)	(R) Rosa González (UDI)	Ricardo Pacheco (PH)	Wanda Clemente (Ind.)
2	Raúl Bagioli (PDC)	Espártago Ferrari (RN)	Pedro Cisterna (PC)	Marta Isasi (PAR)	none
	(R) Fulvio Rossi (PS)	Julio Lagos (UDI)	Sara Chávez (Ind.)	Eduardo Alberto Prieto (PAR)
3	(R) Waldo Mora (PDC)	Raúl Salinas (RN)	Daniel Ramírez (PC)	Jorge Godoy (Ind.)	Esteban Velásquez
	Marcos Espinosa (PRSD)	Felipe Ward (UDI)	Francisco Avendaño (PH)	Miguel Urrelo (Ind.)
4	(R) Pedro Araya (PDC)	Daniel Guevara (Ind.)	Luis Sagredo (PC)	Raúl Zepeda (Ind.)	none
	Hernán Rivera (Ind.)	(R) Manuel Rojas (UDI)	Pedro Luque (PH)	Rosa Pérez (Ind.)
5	Erick Villegas (PDC)	René Aedo (RN)	Gastón Quezada (PC)	Jorge Cuello (PAR)	Carlos Vilches
	(R) Antonio Leal (PPD)	Alberto Calvo (UDI)	Carlos Toro (PH)
6	(R) Jaime Mulet (PDC)	Berta Torres (RN)	Isabel Irribarren (PC)	Cristián Tapia (Ind.)	none
	(R) Alberto Robles (PRSD)	José Luis Uriarte (UDI)	Lorena Ortega (PH)
7	Ricardo Cifuentes (PDC)	(R) Mario Bertolino (RN)	Eric Campos (PC)	none	none
	Marcelo Díaz (PS)	Francisco Eguiguren (UDI)	Luis Vega (PC)
8	(R) Patricio Walker (PDC)	Alberto Gallardo (RN)	Miguel Solís (PC)	none	none
	(R) Francisco Encina (PS)	Fernando Cordero (UDI)	Mario González (PH)
9	Renán Fuentealba (PDC)	Fernando Goncalves (RN)	Julio Ugas (PC)	none	Agapito Santander
	(R) Adriana Muñoz (PPD)	(R) Darío Molina (UDI)	Rubén Ruiz (PC)
10	(R) María Eugenia Mella (PDC)	(R) Alfonso Vargas (RN)	Daniel Jadué (PC)	none	none
	Marco Enríquez-Ominami (PS)	Alfonso Ríos (UDI)	Jaime Romero (PH)
11	(R) Patricio Cornejo (PDC)	Gaspar Rivas (RN)	Mario Méndez (PC)	none	none
	Marco Núñez (PPD)	(R) Marcelo Forni (UDI)	Carlos Muñoz (PH)
12	Humberto de la Maza (PDC)	Amelia Herrera (RN)	Danilo Ahumada (PC)	none	none
	(R) Juan Bustos (PS)	Osvaldo Urrutia (UDI)	Martín Ristempart (PH)
13	Álex Avsolomovich (PDC)	Joaquín Godoy (RN)	Óscar Aroca (PC)	none	none
	(R) Laura Soto (PPD)	Luis Parot (UDI)	Rafael Henríquez (PH)
14	Raúl Allard (PDC)	Francisco Chahuán (RN)	Felipe Zavala (PC)	none	none
	(R) Rodrigo González (PPD)	(R) Gonzalo Ibáñez (UDI)	Luis Aravena (Ind.)
15	Osvaldo Badenier (PDC)	(R) Carlos Hidalgo (Ind.)	Maximiliano Miranda (PC)	none	Sergio Velasco
	(R) Samuel Venegas (PRSD)	Edmundo Eluchans (UDI)	Aníbal Reyna (Ind.)
16	Gabriel Silber (PDC)	Peter Retamales (RN)	Carmen Hertz (PC)	none	none
	Fanny Pollarolo (PS)	(R) Patricio Melero (UDI)	Osvaldo Toro (PH)
17	Sergio Espejo (PDC)	Karla Rubilar (RN)	Jorge Insunza (PC)	none	none
	(R) María Antonieta Saa (PPD)	Álvaro Cruzat (UDI)	Juan López (PH)
18	(R) Carlos Olivares (PDC)	Pedro Pablo Díaz (RN)	Óscar Hernández (PC)	none	none
	Guido Girardi Briere (PPD)	Miguel Schweitzer (UDI)	José Antonio Salinas (PH)
19	Mauricio Castro (PDC)	Pablo Rochet (RN)	Germán Llanca (Ind.)	none	Alejandro Reyes
	(R) Patricio Hales (PPD)	Claudia Nogueira (UDI)	Nicolás García (Ind.)
20	Luis Pareto (PDC)	Roberto Sepúlveda (RN)	Juan Andrés Lagos (PC)	none	none
	Álvaro Escobar (PPD)	(R) Mario Varela (UDI)	Valdemar Sanhueza (Ind.)
21	(R) Jorge Burgos (PDC)	Juan Guillermo Vivado (RN)	Jaime Gajardo (PC)	none	none
	Patricia Silva (PS)	(R) Marcela Cubillos (UDI)	Juan Carlos Gálvez (PH)
22	Ricardo Hormazábal (PDC)	Carmen Ibáñez (RN)	Claudia Pascual (PC)	none	none
	(R) Carolina Tohá (PPD)	(R) Alberto Cardemil (Ind.)	Claudia Manríquez (PH)
23	Clemente Pérez (PDC)	Cristián Monckeberg (RN)	Antonieta Vera (PC)	none	none
	Leopoldo Sánchez (PPD)	(R) Julio Dittborn (UDI)	Carlos Padilla (PH)
24	Marigen Hornkohl (PDC)	Francisco López (RN)	Francisco Villa (PC)	none	none
	(R) Enrique Accorsi (PPD)	(R) María Angélica Cristi (UDI)	Susana Córdova (PH)
25	Marcelo Ortiz (PDC)	Raquel Argandoña (RN)	Amaro Labra (PC)	none	José Pedro Weinstein
	(R) Ximena Vidal (PPD)	(R) Felipe Salaberry (UDI)	Juan Enrique Prieto (PH)
26	Gonzalo Duarte (PDC)	Miguel Navarro (RN)	Julio Oliva (PC)	none	Pedro Ávalos
	(R) Carlos Montes (PS)	Gustavo Alessandri (UDI)	Raúl Florcita Alarcón (PH)
27	(R) Eliana Caraball (PDC)	Carlos Contreras (RN)	Ercides Martínez (PC)	none	none
	Tucapel Jiménez (Ind.)	(R) Iván Moreira (UDI)	Mónica Quilodrán (Ind.)
28	(R) Rodolfo Seguel (PDC)	Julio Ibarra (RN)	Eduardo Contreras (PC)	none	none
	Jorge Insunza (PPD)	(R) Darío Paya (UDI)	Claudina Núñez (PC)
29	Teresa Montrone (PDC)	(R) Maximiano Errázuriz (RN)	Manuel Hernández (PC)	none	none
	(R) Isabel Allende (PS)	Pablo Desbordes (UDI)	Patricio Bell (PH)
30	(R) Edgardo Riveros (PDC)	Rosa Oyarce (RN)	Sergio Castro (PC)	none	none
	Ramón Farías (PPD)	(R) José Antonio Kast (UDI)	Tania Figueroa (PH)
31	Francisco Puga (PDC)	Alberto Haddad (RN)	Marcela Mallea (PC)	none	none
	Denise Pascal (PS)	(R) Gonzalo Uriarte (UDI)	Luis Leoncio Álvarez (PH)
32	Juan Ramón Godoy (Ind.)	Luis Díaz (RN)	Pedro Aravena (PC)	none	none
	(R) Esteban Valenzuela (PPD)	(R) Alejandro García-Huidobro (UDI)	Guido Oyarzún (PH)
33	Carlos Dupré (PDC)	Félix Ortiz (Ind.)	Carlos Poblete (PC)	none	none
	Alejandro Sule (PRSD)	(R) Eugenio Bauer (UDI)	Sergio Mella (PH)
34	(R) Alejandra Sepúlveda (PDC)	Rodrigo Montt (Ind.)	José Figueroa (PC)	none	none
	Alba Gallardo (PS)	(R) Juan Masferrer (UDI)	José Tejo (PH)
35	Juan Carlos Latorre (PDC)	César Molfino (Ind.)	Patricio Martínez (PC)	none	none
	Rubén Andino (PS)	(R) Ramón Barros (UDI)	Mauro Pantoja (PH)
36	Roberto León (PDC)	Matías Carrozzi (RN)	Wladimir Pulgar (PC)	none	Moisés Lucero
	Raúl Bravo (PS)	(R) Sergio Correa (UDI)	María Eliana Astaburuaga (PH)
37	Christian Suárez (PDC)	Germán Verdugo (RN)	Edgardo Cáceres (PC)	none	none
	(R) Sergio Aguiló (PS)	(R) Pablo Prieto (UDI)	Óscar Vega (Ind.)
38	(R) Pablo Lorenzini (PDC)	(R) Pedro Pablo Álvarez-Salamanca (RN)	José Oróstica (PC)	none	none
	Roberto Celedón (Ind.)	Eduardo Prieto (UDI)	Marcelo Mardones (Ind.)
39	Yenny Molina (Ind.)	(R) Osvaldo Palma (RN)	Mario Ibarra (PC)	none	none
	(R) Jorge Tarud (PPD)	Christian Chadwick (UDI)	Roberto Gutiérrez (PH)
40	Ulises Urzúa (Ind.)	Juan Carlos Muñoz (RN)	Edgar Cifuentes (PC)	none	none
	(R) Guillermo Ceroni (PPD)	(R) Ignacio Urrutia (UDI)	Juan Carlos Márquez (Ind.)
41	Claudio Huepe (PDC)	(R) Rosauro Martínez (RN)	Cristián Muñoz (PC)	none	none
	(R) Carlos Abel Jarpa (PRSD)	Alejandro Arrau (UDI)	Claudio Ávila (Ind.)
42	Jorge Sabag (PDC)	(R) Nicolás Monckeberg (RN)	Luis Soto (PC)	none	José Roberto Santos
	(R) Felipe Letelier (PPD)	René Barba (UDI)	Camilo Cabezas (PH)
43	Sergio Micco (PDC)	Frank Sauerbaum (RN)	Alejandro Sepúlveda (PC)	none	Patricio Pinto
	Raúl Súnico (PS)	(R) Jorge Ulloa (UDI)	Patricia Beltrán (PH)		Elicia Herrera
44	(R) José Miguel Ortiz (PDC)	Francisca Van Rysselberghe (Ind.)	Freddy Cabrera (PC)	none	Félix González
	Maria Angélica Fuentes (PPD)	(R) Andrés Egaña (UDI)	Loreto Muñoz (PH)
45	Germán Acuña (PDC)	Bernardo Ulloa (Ind.)	Iván Quintana (PC)	none	none
	Clemira Pacheco (PS)	Sergio Bobadilla (UDI)	Isaías Gutiérrez (Ind.)
46	Edmundo Salas (PDC)	Ana Eugenia García Aillón (RN)	Guillermo Teillier (PC)	none	none
	Manuel Monsalve (PS)	(R) Iván Norambuena (UDI)	Jorge Venegas (Ind.)
47	Marcelo Urrutia (PDC)	Gonzalo Arellano (RN)	Julio Aránguiz (PC)	none	none
	(R) José Pérez (PRSD)	Juan Lobos (UDI)	Jorge Monje (PH)
48	Mario Venegas (PDC)	(R) Francisco Bayo (RN)	Domingo Marileo (PC)	Romnel Edgardo Aravena (ANI)	Sofía Painiqueo
	Ricardo Navarrete (PRSD)	Gonzalo Arenas (UDI)	Juan Varela (Ind.)
49	Víctor Gárate (PDC)	Cristián Barra (RN)	Mauricio Teillier (PC)	Julio Villablanca (ANI)	none
	(R) Jaime Quintana (PPD)	Enrique Estay (UDI)	Mario Poo (Ind.)	Eduardo Díaz (Ind.)
50	(R) Eduardo Saffirio (PDC)	(R) Germán Becker (RN)	Javier Chávez (PC)	Guillermo Allende (ANI)	Sergio Castillo
	Carlos González (PRSD)	Gonzalo Navarrete (UDI)	Carlos Carter (PH)		Luis Seguel
51	(R) Eduardo Díaz (Ind.)	Hernán Viguera (RN)	Antonieta Faúndez (PC)	Laura Soto Ibacache (ANI)	Fernando Troncoso
	(R) Eugenio Tuma (PPD)	René Fernández (UDI)	Jorge Zambrano (PH)
52	Mario Acuña (PDC)	(R) René Manuel García (RN)	Francisco Painevilo (PC)	Miguel Ángel Arteaga (ANI)	none
	(R) Fernando Meza (PRSD)	Alejandro Martini (UDI)	Pablo González (PH)
53	(R) Exequiel Silva (PDC)	(R) Roberto Delmastro (Ind.)	Marcia Klein (PC)	Fredi Kirshbom (ANI)	none
	Alfonso de Urresti (PS)	Sebastián Donoso (UDI)	Beatriz Hermosilla (Ind.)
54	Ricardo Halabí (PDC)	Ewald Wittke (RN)	Pedro Ruiz (PC)	Félix Montiel (ANI)	none
	(R) Enrique Jaramillo (PPD)	(R) Gastón Von Muhlenbrock (UDI)		Guillermo Holtheuer (Ind.)
55	(R) Sergio Ojeda (PDC)	Beatriz Díaz (Ind.)	Patricio Miranda (PC)	Jaime Moreira (Ind.)	none
	Fernando Soto (PS)	(R) Javier Hernández (UDI)	Claudio Soto (Ind.)
56	Carlos Tudela (PDC)	Harry Jurgensen (RN)	Andrea Oyarzún (PC)	Jorge Blaessinger (Ind.)	none
	(R) Fidel Espinoza (PS)	(R) Carlos Recondo (UDI)	Antonio Caileo (Ind.)
57	Patricio Vallespín (PDC)	Eduardo Becker (RN)	Renato Alvarado (PC)	Pablo Muñoz (Ind.)	none
	Sergio Galilea (PPD)	Marisol Turres (UDI)
58	(R) Gabriel Ascencio (PDC)	Alejandro Santana (RN)	Mario Contreras (PC)	Minor Braniff (Ind.)	none
	Juan José Cárcamo (PPD)	(R) Claudio Alvarado (UDI)	Luis Veloso (Ind.)
59	Eduardo Santelices (PDC)	(R) Pablo Galilea (RN)	Yasna Jara (PC)	Mercedes Mayorga (Ind.)	none
	René Alinco (PPD)	Max Larraín (UDI)	Walter Ramírez (Ind.)
60	Carolina Goic (PDC)	René Bobadilla (Ind.)	Jeannette Antonin (PC)	none	Miodrag Marinovic
	Lidia Amarales (PPD)	(R) Rodrigo Álvarez (UDI)	Jaime Agurto (Ind.)

Source: Tricel/Servel.

Senate

Cons.	Concertación	Alliance	Juntos Podemos Más	Independent Regionalist Force	Independents
2nd	(R) Carmen Frei (PDC)	(R) Carlos Cantero (RN)	Salvador Barrientos (PC)	Luis Thompson (Ind.)	none
	José Antonio Gómez (PRSD)	Cristián Leay (UDI)	José Gabriel Feres (PH)	Humberto Zuleta (Ind.)
4th	(R) Jorge Pizarro (PDC)	Arturo Longton (RN)	Luis Aguilera (PC)	none	none
	Jorge Arrate (PS)	(R) Evelyn Matthei (UDI)	Joaquín Arduengo (PH)
7th	(R) Andrés Zaldívar (PDC)	Roberto Fantuzzi (Ind.)	Gonzalo Rovira (Ind.)	none	none
	Guido Girardi (PPD)	(R) Jovino Novoa (UDI)	Eduardo Artés (Ind.)
8th	Soledad Alvear (PDC)	Lily Pérez (RN)	Manuel Riesco (PC)	none	none
	Gonzalo Martner (PS)	Pablo Longueira (UDI)	Efrén Osorio (PH)
9th	Aníbal Pérez (PPD)	Ramón Achurra (Ind.)	Carmen Moncada (Ind.)	none	none
	Juan Pablo Letelier (PS)	(R) Andrés Chadwick (UDI)	Marilén Cabrera (PH)
12th	(R) Hosain Sabag (PDC)	Alberto Gyhra (Ind.)	Hugo Corvalán (Ind.)	none	none
	Alejandro Navarro (PS)	Carlos Bombal (UDI)	Wilfredo Alfsen (PH)
13th	(R) Mariano Ruiz-Esquide (PDC)	(R) Mario Ríos (RN)	Marta Morales (PC)	none	none
	Eleodoro Torres (Ind.)	Víctor Pérez (UDI)	Gloria Mujica (PH)
16th	Eduardo Frei (PDC)	Andrés Allamand (RN)	Guillermo Tripailaf (PC)	Raúl Silva (ANI)	none
	Marcos Saldías (PRSD)		Hugo Gerter (Ind.)	Carlos Boero (ANI)
17th	(R) Sergio Páez (PDC)	Carlos Kuschel (RN)	Irma Alvarado (PC)	José Luis Cáceres (Ind.)	none
	Camilo Escalona (PS)	Joaquín Brahm (UDI)	Tomás Bize (Ind.)	Mario Osses (Ind.)
19th	Zarko Luksic (PDC)	Eduardo Catalán (Ind.)	José Foppiano (Ind.)	none	Carlos Bianchi
	Pedro Muñoz (PS)	(R) Sergio Fernández (UDI)	Fernando Ortiz (PH)		Manuel Barrera

Source: Tricel/Servel.

Election timeline

• 5 January 2005: Former president Eduardo Frei declines a possible presidential candidacy.
• 14 January 2005: Soledad Alvear defeats senator Adolfo Zaldívar in an internal primary, and is proclaimed presidential pre-candidate by the PDC.
• 24 April 2005: Michelle Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PRSD.
• 27 April 2005: Alvear and Bachelet hold a televised primary debate in Hualpén.
• 14 May 2005: Sebastián Piñera is proclaimed presidential candidate by National Renewal.
• 24 May 2005: Alvear declines her presidential pre-candidacy.
• 5 June 2005: Tomás Hirsch is proclaimed presidential candidate of pact Juntos Podemos Más.
• 19 June 2005: Joaquín Lavín is proclaimed presidential candidate by the Independent Democratic Union.
• 30 July 2005: Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PDC.
• 21 August 2005: Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PS and PPD.
• 7 September 2005: RN candidate Sebastián Piñera officially registers his candidacy for president.
• 8 September 2005: CPD candidate Michelle Bachelet officially registers her candidacy for president, as does UDI candidate Joaquín Lavín.
• 11 September 2005: Deadline for voters to register.
• 12 September 2005: Deadline for candidates to register and official start of campaigning. During the day, independent candidate Aucán Huilcamán officially registers his candidacy for president, as does JPM candidate Tomás Hirsch.
• 15 September 2005: The Electoral Service (Servel) rejects the candidacy of Mapuche leader Aucán Huilcamán.
• 19 October 2005: The first televised debate among all candidates takes place.
• 11 November 2005: The free televised campaign time begins with candidate receiving five minutes each; street ads are allowed.
• 16 November 2005: The second televised debate among all candidates takes place.
• 6 December 2005: Bachelet cancels her final campaign rally after five of her supporters are killed in a bus crash.
• 9 December 2005: Official campaigning ends at midnight; electoral publicity is no longer allowed.
• 11 December 2005: Election day. Voting begins at 7 AM local time (10:00 GMT).
• 26 December 2005: The Electoral Tribunal (Tricel) publishes the final and official results of the first round election.
• 27 December 2005: First round results are published on the Official Gazette.
• 1 January 2006: Electoral campaigning for the runoff election begins. Each candidate receives two and a half minutes of free television airtime.
• 4 January 2006: The only televised debate between the two runoff candidates takes place.
• 12 January 2006: Official campaigning ends.
• 15 January 2006: Runoff election takes place. Socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet is elected president.
• 30 January 2006: The Tricel publishes the final and official results of the runoff election.
• 30 January 2006: President-elect Michelle Bachelet announces the members of her cabinet.
• 11 March 2006: President-elect Bachelet is sworn in by the National Congress in Valparaíso.

See also

• Politics of Chile
• List of political parties in Chile

External links

• (in Spanish) Official results from the Election Qualifier Tribunal
• (in Spanish) Preliminary results from the Ministry of Interior
• (in Spanish) Electoral Service (Servel)
• (in Spanish) Bachelet for President official website
• (in Spanish) Hirsch for President official website
• (in Spanish) Lavín for President official website
• (in Spanish) Piñera for President official website
• (in Spanish) Electoral Stock Market (University of Chile/University of Chicago)
• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
• Intelligence brief: Chile by Dr. Michael A. Weinstein, Asian Tribune, 21 December 2005