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Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2017 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Campaigns heat up in Chile ahead of November vote

Former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014) this month confirmed that he will seek the presidential nomination for the right-wing Chile Vamos opposition coalition (comprising the Unión Demócrata Independiente [UDI] and Renovación Nacional [RN]) ahead of Chile’s November general elections. Despite the threat of various legal cases against him, Piñera remains the frontrunner ahead of the vote – a reflection in large part of the unpopularity of the Nueva Mayoría coalition government led by President Michelle Bachelet. This unpopularity stems from a string of corruption scandals which have afflicted the political and business classes alike – such as the illegal electoral campaign financing scandals implicating local companies. It also stems from the continued domestic economic slowdown (attributed to the fall in international copper prices) as well as, most recently, the government’s perceived mishandling of last month’s forest fires – the worst in the country’s history [RBS-17-02].

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