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More than 190 candidates will face off in the nearly 70 non-legal mayoral primaries that the Constituent Unit will hold this Sunday. In communes such as Providencia, San Miguel, Lo Espejo, Pudahuel, Chillán, Valparaíso and Valdivia, the Christian Democracy, the Radical Party, the PPD, the Socialist Party, the PRO and Citizens will measure their forces.
The agreement to hold these contests was sealed less than a month ago in a complex scenario for the center-left. With a narrow margin of time to organize these electoral events, the leaders of the sector had initiated a series of negotiations amid the tensions that were dragging after the failed negotiations to reach a pact of legal primaries of regional governors -which occurred on 29 of November- from DC to the Broad Front.
However, the collectivities of the center-left again failed in their attempts to “unity” and only reached transversal agreements in a minimum number of communes. Consequently, this Sunday there will only be three primaries of the Constituent Unit with the Broad Front (Pudahuel, La Reina and Providencia), a situation that will force the sector to arrive in an unfavorable position before the right to the elections of April 11 in the majority of the localities.
In this context, in the Constituent Unit collectives, they argue that these primaries will once again “demonstrate” that as a bloc they have a greater territorial capacity than that of the Frente Amplio, something that, they say, was evidenced by the difference between the number of voters obtained each sector in the case of metropolitan governors. In that contest, the Constituent Unit obtained 84,266 votes, doubling the 34,064 reached by the FA.
Likewise, these elections will once again generate a measurement of forces within that pact. As projected from the sector, the Christian Democracy will be the community that obtains the highest number of victories in these elections, who, say in the directive led by Fuad chahin, they would win between 20 to 25 communes. Meanwhile, from the PS they maintain that they could be imposed in between 10 and 20 locations, while from the PPD they assure that a “good result” would be to triumph with 8 or 9 candidates.
In that sense, the sector considers that there will be at least 10 “key” elections this weekend. Some of them, say in the Constituent Unit, to define who will face mayors in emblematic communes where the right governs today, but others, such as Valparaíso, to outline the figures who will seek to contest the building seats of the Frente Amplio.
There will be four candidates who will seek to win the quota to face the current mayor of Valparaiso, Jorge Sharp in the April 11 elections. And although during the conversations from the Constituent Unit they called on the Broad Front to hold a primary in that commune, from this last bloc they resisted promoting that mechanism in one of the strongest areas of their coalition.
This, despite the doubt that exists today in that block regarding whether or not they could support the mayor, who resigned from Social Convergence and is being questioned for an alleged misuse of school grants and other irregularities.
In that sense, from the Constituent Unit they maintain that the result of Valparaíso will be crucial to evaluate their opportunities against the current mayor. In the contest the PR candidate, Priscila Fleming; from the PS, Patricio Rozas; from the DC, Marcelo Barraza; and Citizens, Jaime Morales.
Providencia, La Reina and Pudahuel. Those will be the communes where the center-left, from the DC to the Broad Front, will hold primaries this Sunday.
And although at first there was talk of about 13 municipalities in which an agreement could be reached from the entire opposition arc, during the talks different tensions arose that did not allow a greater pact. Thus, the center-left only managed to seal joint elections in four communes. One of them, in Alto del Carmen, already took place on December 13.
In the primaries of Providence the candidates of the DC, Pablo Jaeger, of the PS, Cristian Aránguiz, of Comunes, Felipe Parada, of the PC, Luis Ibacache; and the independent, Verónica Pardo. However, from the PPD they will support the independent and current councilor of the commune Jaime Parada, who will not participate in these elections.
Meanwhile, in La Reina will be Cristián del Canto (PS), Sara Campos (DC) and Catalina Rubio (RD).
In Pudahuel another scenario will occur. Unlike the other two communes whose mayors are the UDI, Evelyn Matthei (Providencia) and José Manuel Palacios (La Reina), the leader of that municipality is the socialist Johnny Carrasco, who was unable to compete next year for the new law from the end to re-election.
In that case, however, the PS will try to keep the municipality in its ranks with the candidacy of Jaime Romero. Meanwhile, the rest of the communities registered Marcela Labraña (DC), Mónica Sánchez (PRO) and José Escobar (RD).
Despite the fact that the sector’s collectives publicly expressed their will to hold primaries in those communes where they have mayors in office, there will be few cases where this phenomenon will occur.
One of those will be in I mirror it, where today is the communal chief, Miguel Ángel Bruna (former PPD), who has been investigated for an alleged tax fraud. In that contest the PR candidates, Carlos Soto; from the PS, María Isabel Sotomayor; and from DC, Carlos Gardel.
Also, in the commune of San antonio a similar scenario will also occur. The socialist Fernando Núñez and the DC Jorge Jorquera will compete in that town, who will seek to replace the current independent mayor close to the PR, Omar Vera.
Furthermore, in AricaThe Constituent Unit had defined holding a primary, however, only one candidate was registered, Cristián Pérez (PS), who will compete with the current mayor of the Liberal Party, Gerardo Espíndola.
For its part, on Sunday the 13th a primary school was held in the city of Copiapo, in which the current mayor Marco López prevailed, who was supported by the PRO and the PR.
Most of the communes where the Constituent Unit will attend primaries this Sunday correspond to those led by Chile Vamos. Thus, the result will be crucial for the sector and could mark the possibilities that the bloc will have to impose itself on the ruling party – which controls most of the country’s communes – in April.
Emblematic cases will occur in the communes of Melipilla, where the mayor RN Iván Campos Aravena currently holds the position. That battle will be disputed by the PS candidates Claudio Martínez and the DC Juan González letter. The same situation occurs in the case of Done, where the primary to end the control of the UDI by the hand of Mayor Miguel Araya will be fought between the PPD Patricio Silva, the socialist Yovanna Fuentes and the DC Francisco Becerra.
In the case of San MiguelMeanwhile, the block will seek a single candidacy to win the municipality currently led by RN Luis Sanhueza. There, Héctor Mora (PPD), David Navarro (PR) and Cristian Palestro (PS) will fight for the quota.
Likewise, the pact will also define their letters to contest the mayoralties of Punta Arenas and Valdivia, where are RN Claudio Radonic and the independent pro UDI, Omar Sabat, respectively.
