Elections Next Door

Millionaire Sebastián Piñera from the right-wing Coalición por el Cambio (Coalition for Change) won the second round of elections today in Chile. He faced off against Eduardo Frei, center-left candidate of Concertación. This win is historic, marking the first time since 1958 that the right has won democratic elections. (Pinochet's dictatorship from 1973-1990, of course, accounts for many of those years.) Early results attribute 51% of the vote to Piñera against Frei's 48%. This is the first time since 1990 that the center-left Concertación has lost elections.