Evening star., 1946-08-25
Chile Voters
Face Bitter
Test Sept. 4
Right and Left Groups
Name Five Candidates
for Presidency
By Vaughn NJ. Bryant

oAN A1A1O, CAlie, Aug. Lf.-Wltn
less than two weeks left before Chileans
vote to elect new President September
4, even the shrewdest political observers
refuse to hazard a guess on the out
come of the scrambled race.
An open breach IN the powerful radi-
cal party on the left, and the inability
of the three traditional Rightiest parties
to agree on candidate left five power
full entries in the running. The winning
candidate must receive SO per cent, plus
one. of the popular vote. Failing ma
jority, the election reverts to the Ma
tional Congress.
Chile's presidential race traditionally
has featured two candidates with their
support simply and evenly divided be-
tween the right and left. Nominees
were chosen in open conventions of all
parties in these groupings. The left won
the Office for the first time in 1889 when
the Radicals, Socialists, Democrats, Fa-
langists and Communists united to place
Radical Pedro Aguirre Cerda in power.
After Aguirre died late in 1941 the
left repeated it's victory with Radical
Juan Antonio Rios in February, 1912.
Rios died last June 81 after lengthy
illness and the Radicals are hoping for
their third straight victory with Gabriel
Gonzalez Videla, former Ambassador to
Vichy, France, and to Argentina, who
also has Communist support.
The Leftist front split sharply, how
ever, when a dissident minority term
ing themselves democratic radicals be-
halde Vasquez, picked by Rios to take
Office temporarily during his illness.
Duhalde is still Vice President, but he
must resign If he decides to remain a
candidate.
Duhalde Attacked.
Duhalde, formerly Radical, was read
out OF the party as bitterness mounted.
Gonzales, who represents the extreme
left, has attacked Duhalde energetically
since the latter took strong measures
against a Communist backed nation
wide strike last February. Duhalde
called Socialists into the government
and the Radicals withdrew their sup
port.
The Chilean right, gleefully watching
the leftist front fall apart, found itself
in somewhat similar position. The con-
servative. liberal and agrarian parties
each had candidate and each was un-
willing to sacrifice its man to support
a one and only right-front candidate.
Chilean law provides that elections
must be held within 10 days If Presi-
dent dies in Office. The three rightist
parties met shortly after Rios death in
an atmosphere of confidence to choose
joint candidate. Ten days later the
convention had fallen apart with no
candidate able to obtain the necessary
so per cent of the convention votes.
Subsequent maneuvers and negotia-
tions also failed. When a final seven
man tribunal. of honor was unable to
resolve the differences, each party an
nounced its intention of taking it's candi-
date independently to the polls.
The conservatives are backing Edu-
ardo Cruz Coke, liberal-minded proallied
Senator who won renown decade ago
as minister of public health. The con-
servatives. represented by the church,
large landowners and the old families of
Chile, are expected to poll an estimated
100000 votes, approximately one-fifth of
the expected national vote.
The other rightist groups insisted, in
refusing to support Cruz Coke, that his
conservative" label would lose the race
for the right. They wanted liberal or
an agrarian. The conservatives replied
that they had supported other rightist
candidates in previous years to present
united rightist front. This year, they
said, it was their turn to receive support.
The liberals started with three possi-
BILE candidates. but narrowed their choice
to Arturo Alessandri Palma, three times
President of Chile and now president
OF the Senate. Despite his more than
Is years, he still is the popular idol of
thousands of Chileans. Alessandri is
supported by minority groups in the
Socialist and Democratic parties as we'll
as by the Liberals.
The agrarian candidate is Jaime Lar
rain Garcia Moreno. once a conserva-
tive, who now Is standard bearer for a
mixed group of large and small land
owners and for b ie rural areas of South
Central Chile.
Distributed by the Associated Press)