SANTIAGO, Nov 17 (NNN-Xinhua) — More than 15 million Chileans will head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, deputies, senators and regional councilors.
The candidates, including seven presidential nominees, will be vying for the votes of 15,030,974 registered voters, including more than 70,000 eligible Chileans living abroad, according to the final electoral roll released by Chile’s Electoral Service, or Servel.
In Congress, 27 of 50 senate seats representing nine of the country’s 16 regions are up for grab, while all 155 seats in the lower house are to be renewed, as well as 302 regional council seats.
This will be the first parliamentary election to take place under a new law that limits reelection to three times for a deputy and twice for a senator.
Regarding the presidential race, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held on Dec 19.
The president of the Servel, Andres Tagle, on Monday highlighted the role of proxies at polling stations, saying these citizen representatives appointed by political parties and independent candidates are there to ensure a democratic and transparent election, and will be present at all 46,639 voting centers set up nationwide.
Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera on Friday said the armed forces and law enforcement “will ensure public order is maintained and safeguarded in all regions of Chile.”
According to Tagle, election authorities have set up a system to display the preliminary results of the election for the public, something previously only available to the political parties.
“Now it will be available to everyone, and any citizen will be able to review our preliminary results and compare them with copies of the ballots,” the Servel said. — NNN-XINHUA
