Soledad Alvear and Michelle Bachelet are Leading the Polls

I have posted on several occasions about the fact that Soledad Alvear and Michelle Bachelet appear to be the frontrunners in this year's presidential election in Chile.  It now appears that both of them have large leads over their closest rivals and the likelihood that one of them will be elected president this year seems to be significant. This could be a tranformative moment for Chilean society:

In this socially conservative country where domestic violence is common and women earn much less than men, the two top parties have selected female nominees, virtually ensuring that Chile will get its first female head of state.

Opinion polls show the two women, Michelle Bachelet and Soledad Alvear, commanding huge leads over all other rivals for the Dec. 12 elections.

"There are still some macho attitudes in our country, but all opinion polls show that a major cultural change has occurred in that respect," Alvear said. "The time has come for a woman president."

Their early emergence indicates an important shift in attitudes in this South American country, where growing public disgruntlement with politics as usual is creating new political opportunities for women.

"Women are seen as more honest, more concerned about the poor and more democratic," said Maria de los Angeles Fernandez, a political scientist at Diego Portales University.

I wonder how much this is a reaction to the Pinochet-Riggs-Citibank scandal.

Comments

[quixote http://acid-test.blogspot.com/]

Remember when the US was considered the leader of the free world? Maybe once everyone else joins Chile and a few other countries in realizing that good leaders come in all shapes, even the US will finally get its collective head out of its ass.

[Brian Greene]

My obligatory Chile response! I really have nothing to add on Bachelet/Alvear - I think its great. What I did want to ask if you, or anyone else, saw, was that economic figures just came out and the Chilean economy grew 6.1% last year. Thats the highest growth rate since 1997 and great news for the country, as well as Bachelet/Alvear's election chances.