Chilean legislative elections: closed victory for the ruling coalition

The center-left ruling alliance of socialist President Ricardo Lagos, obtained a closed victory on the legislative elections of Sunday. However, his party suffered a strong drop down to its support and is now forced to cohabite with the right wing forces in the parliament with a narrow majority.

As per the last results released to press, "La Concertacion" the ruling alliance between the Socialist Party and other center-left forces, obtained 47.95 per cent of the votes against the 44.33 per cent of the opposition. All in all, the elections allowed Lagos' coalition to keep their position in the lower chamber, while the situation in the Senate will keep on showing a tied scenario.

"Chile have spoken today and we have to listen to what Chile have said", expressed Lagos, after acknowledging the results of the elections. In turn, Joaquin Lavin, Santiago Major and head of the opposition said his party is strengthened as the alternative to the government.

The reason for Lavin's optimistic statement is the good election in the lower Chamber, where for the first time since the fall of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship regime in 1990, the leftist parties lost their wide majority. Even though President Lagos have tried to keep calmed after the weakened popular support obtained on Sunday, analysts believe that the right wing advance will be a hard obstacle for his last four years of Government.