Christian Democrat Yasna Provoste to be center-left candidate for Chilean presidential election

The President of the Senate of Chile, Yasna Provoste, of the Christian Democracy party, won a presidential primary in the former Concertación this Saturday, center-left parties that ruled much of the 30 years following the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Provoste, 51, won with 62% of the vote Paula Narváez of the Socialist Party (26%) and Carlos Maldonado of the Radical Party (11%) in the Constituent Unity elections, the conglomerate that brings together these political organizations, which has developed through a citizen consultation in which activists and independents voted.

“We must be able to work together for the good of our country. The next government cannot improvise, ”declared Provoste after his victory.

A teacher by profession, Provoste has assumed several political responsibilities, including that of ministra de Planificación durante el gobierno de Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) y de Educación en la primera presidencia de Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), cargo del cual fue destituida por una acusación constitucional en el Congreso que la inhabilitó para ejercer funciones políticas por 5 years.

In 2013 she returned as an assistant and four years later He achieved a seat in the Senate of Chile, an institution he has chaired since last March.

The Christian Democrats, the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy, main partners of Constituent Unity, ruled Chile from the end of the dictatorship in 1990 until in 2010 they became a referent in the opposition to Sebastián’s first right-wing government. Piñera.

However, The formations of the ex-Concertación arrive in this election year weakened by public mistrust of traditional parties and the loss of their historic support among the progressive electorate after the social change that Chile has experienced since 2019.

Chile’s next president will have to deal with the vestiges left by the coronavirus pandemic crisis and will govern under a new Constitution to be drawn up by the Constitutive Convention, which began its task on July 4 and has a term of up to one year to conclude it.

The fact that this citizen consultation was organized by the parties of the Constituent Unit coalition and that it did not take place on July 18 at the same time as the official right and left primary, organized by the Electoral Service (Servel ), reflects the differences that exist within the block.

And despite the fact that there were yesterday some criticisms for not having made the consultation in the judicial primaries, it was also defended that this election gave a “floor of legitimacy” to the winner, and his two adversaries recognized his triumph.

“We would have liked a different result, but democracy is like that. We have already had a great achievement to have had this citizen consultation and we can say that it gives an important floor of legitimacy to the triumph of Provoste, declared Narvaez to the press. “It is this center-left project that our mission is to strengthen and transcend,” added the spokesperson for former president Michelle Bachelet.

At the same time, Maldonado said he hoped “from the bottom of his heart” that Chile “finds a good way forward”, adding that the known result “is assumed and respected”.

As reported by the organizing committee, around 150,000 people voted during the day, far from the 3 million voters who went to the polls during the official primaries of July 18.

In this case, the Front large (FA) deputy Gabriel Boric, on the left, and the independent on the right Sebastián Sichel were the winners.

Provoste will compete in the presidential elections on November 21 with Sebastián Sichel (44), candidate of the Chile Vamos coalition of the right-wing parties National Renovation, Evópoli and Independent Democratic Union; and with MP Gabriel Boric (35), the young emerging figure of the left pact between the Broad Front and the Communist Party.

In addition, other minority parties and independent candidates will leave their candidacies sealed on Monday, when the deadline to register for the November 21 election expires.

Sichel and Boric were elected in the presidential primaries of July 18, in which the center-left did not participate after failing in their attempt to achieve a broad primary with the Broad Front and the Communist Party, which rejected it. This is how they organized this consultation to have a presidential candidate.

With information from AFP and EFE

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