Lucky break for Chile’s loser ruler?

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 10

Lucky break for Chile’s loser ruler?

NZPA-Reuter Santiago Chile’s military ruler, Augusto Pinochet, who was soundly defeated last week in a ballot on extending his rule, could stand as a candidate jn an open presidential election, his Defence Minister said yesterday. “He could be a candidate as long as he stood down before the election were called,” Admiral Patricio Carvajal told journalists. Controversy over whether the general, in power since a bloody 1973 coup, could stand again has been stirred by a series of newspaper advertisements expressing support for his future candidacy. General Pinochet lost a plebiscite on Wednesday extending his rule for eight more years by 53 per cent to 43 in the first direct leadership vote in Chile since he toppled the elected Marxist President Salvador Allende in 1973. The constitution says the general can remain in the Presidency until March, 1990. But before stepping down he must hold a competitive presidential election in December next year to coincide with voting for congress. General Pinochet’s opponents say the 72-year-old President is barred from standing again in a future election. But Admiral Carvajal said lawyers had told him General Pinochet could be a candidate providing he left the Presidency before calling the vote. The Government’s official spokesman said on Monday it was too early for decision. Opponents accuse the Government of attempting to ignore the significance of the poll in which nearly four million of Chile’s 7.2 million voters rejected Pinochet.