Chile Constitutional Referendum, October 25th 2020

[Estrella]

Juaquin Lavin, main presidential hopeful of the right, however, is full for Approve, because he doesn't want anything to do with the sinking ship that is "Reject the new constitution".

And here I was hoping for someone who isn't a washed-up apparatchik from twenty years ago -_- Chile seems to be getting to a Peru level of politicians refusing to stop running for President (wasn't Piñera supposed to run in 1989 before he got hit with some scandal?)

[Estrella]

It's also pretty funny to see Evópoli, a party I'd expect to be full of muh liberal anti-populist technocracy types literally start their ads with "la política es una mierda" lol.

But then my expectations were probably wrong. I'm increasingly confused by the structure of Chilean right - I always assumed that there are starker differences between the two main parties. I thought that RN is a "standard Western conservative party", if quite a bit more right-wing than usual, and UDI is a weird combination of semi-open Pinochetistas and "hello fellow working class weones" people - to use an extremely silly comparision, RN = Romney and UDI = Trump.

Could you explain what are the dividing lines between them?

[Estrella]

*record scratch* *freeze frame* You're probably wondering how I got here.

Today in history, we go back to... er, last year. On October 1, 2019, Ministry of Transport announced a tariff hike on Santiago Metro. It was ostensibly a banal, if unpopular measure but it was the match that set fire to the protests, small at first, then bigger and bigger and... anyway, here we are.

[Estrella]

To add to Kaoras' explanation of the chaos with alliances, here's a graphic from Radio Bío Bío:

[Estrella]

Another Today In History: On October 5, 1988, a plebiscite took place. 56% of voters asked Pinochet to pretty please stop being a murderous dictator and, somewhat surprisingly, he complied. Today it's mostly remembered for the cheesy as hell but iconic campaign song for the No side (as in no, we don't want Pinochet; the question on the ballot was literally just his name):

As for the other side - if you think today's Rechazo ads are cringe...

Ｍ Ａ Ｒ Ｘ Ｉ Ｓ Ｔ Ａ Ｓ      Ｒ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ Ｅ

[Estrella]

T13 is at a count in Las Condes (a mega-rich suburb of Santiago, 74% for Piñera+Kast in 2017) and Apruebo is narrowly ahead even there.

Lmao.

[Estrella]

I guess it's too late to jinx it now, so...

Bye-bye, Pinochet!

[Estrella]

What do they put in water in Colchane, Tarapacá? It has literally the highest poverty rate in the country... but it also voted 74% for Reject?! All I can find is a rather ironic article about the mayor complaining about racism and classism against his municipality's Indigenous people in the aftermath of the vote.