Chileans are poised to make history on 11 December 2005 by voting for a woman president. Roberto Espíndola profiles Michelle Bachelet, who has already broken the political mould of a deeply conservative society.
This Sunday, 11 December 2005, could be regarded as just another of Chile’s routine polling days since the return to democracy in 1990. Well into the hot, southern-hemisphere summer and with bars and restaurants closed, the occasion will be used to hold a family gathering or make a day trip to the seaside, perhaps after voting early in the morning. Formally, voting is compulsory, but in reality it isn’t, since no sanctions are enforced on non-voters. Chileans, however, follow tradition and tend to turn out at the polls in large numbers.
If one tradition will be upheld on Sunday, this time there is a reason for Chilean voters to break with another – the male domination of Chilean politics. The leading candidate, who seems certain at least to go through to the second-round polls on 15 January, is the socialist candidate (and defence minister, 2002-04), Michelle Bachelet. Bachelet, 54, is a medical doctor who as a young student was imprisoned and tortured after General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup of 1973; she is also divorced and a single mother, until recently an important minus in a conservative, Catholic society.