Marco Enríquez-Ominami announced his candidacy for the presidency of Chile | His allies have warned of the risk of dividing the vote against the right

The filmmaker, center-left politician and founder of the Progressive Party (PRO), Marco Enríquez-Ominami, announced his candidacy for the presidency of Chile. This is his fourth attempt to reach La Moneda.

Enríquez-Ominami’s announcement comes at a critical time, when the two other center-left alliances Constituent Unit – the former Concertación – and Approve Dignidad – Frente Amplio and Partido Comunista – are negotiating the lists of legislators for the elections of November.

The political space of Enríquez-Ominami is part of the Constitute Unit alliance and in his launch message, he called for continuing to negotiate a unity list for legislative candidates, but his candidacy for the presidency leaves everything hanging from a thread.

The announcement made on Sunday evening contrasts with the popular consultation made on Saturday, which declared the Christian Democrat Yasna Provoste the winner as the alliance’s presidential candidate. Ominami’s allies criticized his decision because of the danger of dividing voices and favoring the right-wing alliance., who seeks to stay in power.

On the same day of the popular consultation, the founder of the PRO was unable to compete in the presidential election because the Electoral Service (Servel) kept his candidacy blocked for two court cases in which he is accused of having paid irregular election expenses. in 2013 and to have received before 2016 illegal financing of the company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile.

However, a few days before Enríquez-Ominami obtained a favorable ruling from the Constitutional Court (TC), which accepted his request to recover his political rights, and the politician and filmmaker’s lawyers quickly made a presentation before the Committee on the Rights of the United Nations man to prevent the Servel from violating the decision of the Constitutional Court.

Le Servel, chaired by Andrés Tagle, argued that he could not implement the decision favorable to Enríquez-Ominami because the registers had to be closed 140 days before the elections, but the potential presentation to the UN generated the pressure necessary to unlock this barrier.

Ominami announcement and review

With the confirmation that the Servel will accept his candidacy, the founder of PRO launched his candidacy 24 hours after the alliance which includes Provoste anointed as presidential candidate, which generates new noise for the center-left already in dispute. November vote with dignity agreement. “The only thing that generates its own way is an undeserved grant to the right,” said the candidate after learning of Enríquez-Ominami’s decision.

“I am announcing to you then, our candidacy for the presidency of the Republic of Chile in this cycle, because the hope of a people is threatened. We are all going together to make the change happen. The change is today ”, was the message launched by the referent of the PRO in a video through his social networks and in which he congratulated Provoste on his victory, but opposed the decision to lead. a consultation instead of an open internal consultation.

In what appear to be tight presidential and legislative elections, Constituent Unity seeks to challenge entry into the second electoral round which, for the moment, appears to lie between the Dignity Accord – which has the young Front leader wide Gabriel Boric as a candidate – and the right-wing alliance led by the former Minister of Social Development of the current President Sebastián Piñera, Sebastián Sichel.