Chile: the 1992 Municipal Elections

Thus, Aylwin's Government had never been faced with an electoral test (such as a by-election) before June 1992. The opinion polls until then had all been unanimous in indicating that the Government's popularity remained intact.

During the preceding year, the democratic Government had had to enter arduous negotiations with the conservative, opposition parties, in order to pass a law that would set the rules for the municipal elections scheduled for 1992. As with all popular elections, those involving the renewal of municipal councils had been abolished by Pinochet's rule. Under the latter, the old office (inherited from the Spanish colonial rule) known as "regidor" (councilor) had been abolished and only the mayoralty survived to administer the municipal council. As it was described before, the pre-1973 councils were composed by 5 to 15 elected councilors. After the 1973 military coup, all mayors would be personally appointed by Pinochet and given wide administrative and political powers to execute and expand his rule, down to the smallest administrative division. In the first few years of Pinochet's rule all mayors were selected from the ranks of the Armed Forces and the Police. Later on, civilians started to enter the station of the personally chosen and they usually came from the old (now officially defunct but unofficially active) right-wing parties. A new class was, however, at the time, emerging into this new political life and quickly becoming Pinochet's most trusted political and fiscal advisers. These were the graduates from the Catholic University (mainly from the Economics and Law faculties) that had been nurtured in the rank and file of the "Gremialista" movement (a typically Catholic University student's union with strong resemblance with the integrist movements in Franco's Spain.) Blending the scions of the wealthy families from the old Chilean social and economic elite with upcoming self-proclaimed "renovators" of the old right-wing parties, these "Gremialistas" were now taking up those posts in the financial and administrative sectors, within the government, that had previously been filled predominantly by army men. Acting together with the more pragmatic but zealously ultra-liberal economists bred in the "Chicago School", these right-wing youthful civilians were being appointed not only as ministers or in junior ministerial posts but were also performing as Pinochet's delegate mayors in the councils.

In 1990-91, taking advantage of their relative strength in the Chilean parliament, the conservative opposition parties forced the passing of a law that - similarly to the one that had set the rules for the 1989 parliamentary elections - was concocted tailor-made for the aspirations of the Right. Thus, councils with a population of less than 100.000 inhabitants would return 6 councilors; those with 100.000-200.000 inhabitants would return 8, and the ones with more than 200.000, would return 10. By pressing the passing of a law that established that a council would be composed by an even number of members, the right-wing parties were expecting that - at least in their traditional strongholds of market towns and rural municipalities - they could, in the worst case, share the municipal power with the government parties. Extrapolating from the results of the 1989 general elections, and based on the binominal proportional system, it was not difficult for the opposition to visualize that a ratio (government/opposition) of 57/43 would entitle the conservatives to get 3 out of the 6 councilors returned by most of the country's municipal councils. When such a tie would be produced, the parties were forced, by law, to share their term in power (i.e.: each major had to stay in power for two of the four years that a council would last). The law decreed that, if any candidate obtained at least 35% of the total vote, he or she would automatically be elected as mayor. In the improbable case of two candidates surpassing the barrier of the 35%, the one with the highest plurality would be elected. When no candidate obtained 35% of the vote, the election of the mayor had to rest in the hands of the parties that had got their candidates elected. The latter scenario was the one that would happen with the highest likelihood in the majority of the Chilean councils, given the multi-party system of the country.

Also acting in the conservatives' favour was the fact that almost 100% of the acting mayors in the 334 municipalities of Chile had pro-Pinochet mayors, (i.e.: those still remaining from the previous government), until well after the new democratic government had been elected! In the last years of Pinochet's regime, mayors had been given increasingly bigger administrative and economic autonomy - as well as swelling budgets. This latter feature had allowed some of them to go into a spree of spending and investing in their councils to help Pinochet's attempt to win the 1988 plebiscite and stay in power for another 8 years (see above). However, as none of those mayors had ever passed a democratic scrutiny it was not at all clear how well those that were aiming at re-election would perform in the coming ballot.

RESULTS OF THE 1992 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS:
NUMBER OF COUNCILORS ELECTED BY PARTY

DC: Christian Democrats; PR: Radical Party; SD: Social Democrats; PPD: Party for Democracy; PS: Socialists; PC: Communist Party; RN: Renovación Nacional; UDI: Unión Demócrata Independiente; Other Right: Liberal Party, National Party; UCC: Unión de Centro-Centro.

RESULTS OF THE 1992 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN DISTRICTS WITH MORE THAN 100.000 INHABITANTS:
NUMBER OF COUNCILORS ELECTED BY PARTY

PARTY:	DC	PR	SD	PHV	PPD	PS	PC	RN	UDI	OTHER RIGHT	UCC	IND	CONCERT- ACION	CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION	UCC	PC	OTHERS	TOTAL
MUNICIPALITY:
Arica	3	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Iquique	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	3	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	4	0	8
Antofagasta	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Valparaíso	4	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	7	3	0	0	0	10
Viña del Mar	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	2	0	1	0	5	4	1	0	0	10
Santiago	3	1	0	1	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	7	3	0	0	0	10
Providencia	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	1	0	0	0	3	5	0	0	0	8
Las Condes	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	3	5	0	0	0	8
Peñalolén	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
La Florida	4	0	0	1	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	7	3	0	0	0	10
Macul	3	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
San Bernardo	3	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
San Joaquín	2	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	5	2	0	1	0	8
Pedro Aguirre Cerda	3	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	6	1	0	1	0	8
Lo Espejo	2	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	5	1	1	1	0	8
Maipú	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
Estación Central	3	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
Cerro Navia	3	0	0	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	5	2	0	1	0	8
Quinta Normal	3	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Recoleta	4	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Conchalí	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
El Bosque	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	5	1	1	0	0	8
Rancagua	2	1	0	0	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Talca	4	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	6	1	1	0	0	8
Chillán	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Concepción	3	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	6	2	1	1	0	10
Talcahuano	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	6	1	1	0	0	8
Los Angeles	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	2	0	1	0	3	5	1	0	0	8
Temuco	3	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	5	3	0	0	0	8
Valdivia	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8
Osorno	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	5	2	1	0	0	8
Punta Arenas	2	0	0	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	2	0	0	0	8

DC: Christian Democrats; PR: Radical Party; SD: Social Democrats; PPD: Party for Democracy; PS: Socialists; PC: Communist Party; RN: Renovación Nacional; UDI: Unión Demócrata Independiente; Other Right: Liberal Party, National Party; UCC: Unión de Centro-Centro; IND: Independents.

---

Back to elections page
Last Modified: Sunday, 23-Feb-97 17:08:54 GMT/BST