Chilean Presidential Election, 2009-2010 (Paperback)

The Chilean presidential election of 2009 was held on Sunday December 13, 2009. Based on the two-round system, since none of the candidates secured the absolute majority needed to take the presidency outright, a run-off between the two most-voted candidates -center-right Sebastin Piera and center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle- was held on Sunday, January 17, 2010. Piera, who won the runoff with nearly 52% of the vote, will succeed Michelle Bachelet on March 11, 2010. Parliamentary elections took place on the same day. Chilean politics are dominated by two main coalitions: the center-left Concert of Parties for Democracy (Concertacin de Partidos por la Democracia), composed of the Christian Democrat Party, the Socialist Party, the Party for Democracy, and the Social Democrat Radical Party; and the center-right Alliance for Chile (Alianza por Chile), composed of the Independent Democrat Union and National Renewal. The Concertacin selected former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle as their candidate, while the Alianza chose former presidential candidate Sebastin Piera, who is supported by the newly created Coalition for Change electoral group.