I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think it's quite interesting (and surprising) to see chilean politics discussed here... While the Coalition for Change did have a serious defeat (mostly because of turnout, otherwise they would have won a few more municipalities), I feel that having the same levels of voting than previous elections (with the key exception of 2008) with the goverment having so low approval ratings is still a good sign for them.
I doubt Bachelet will run (even though she's even more likely to win here in 2013 than Hillary Clinton in 2016), so the field should be quite competitve in the first round (I expect Jocelyn-Holt of ChilePrimero and the independent Franco Parisi to garner a few votes and the PRO to hit double digits again) and the exact opposite of the 2000 election, were the "alternative" candidates couldn't get past 5% together.
On a last note, I will have to disagree about Labbe, even with him being a supporter of Augusto Pinochet he was efficent as a mayor, and that should be the important thing about Municipal Elections.
PS: Magnificent map! I'm not used to see political maps in national politics...
Hi, welcome! You're definitely not interrupting. I always like to see more non-American (and especially non-Anglosphere or Western European) voices on the Forum. I hope you keep contributing here.
Thanks to all of you for your information about Chilean politics. I have one more question, if you don't mind (sorry, but there's not all that much english language info on Chilean politics out there). From what you said (and from what wikipedia says) Bachelet was (is?) very popular (wiki says an approval rating in the 80% range when she left office). If she had that much support, why isn't she an overwhelming favorite to win the next election if she runs? Has something changed since she left office? Actually, given those levels of support it kind of surprises me that she didn't carry Frei to victory like Lula and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Of course this is me knowing pretty much nothing about Chile, honestly.
Also, what a cool coincidence that Google Street View was just released for parts of Chile. I can definitely see the differences between the areas that vote for the right and the left in Santiago, for example.
