Much as some of them tried to claim the result was a victory of sorts, the dejected faces of the leaders of Chile's governing centre-left Concertacion coalition on the night of October 26th told a different story. In that day's municipal elections, Alliance, the centre-right opposition, won 41% of the vote for mayors, two percentage points more than the Concertacion but enough to win eight of the 14 regional capitals. It was the first-ever defeat in a nationwide election for the Concertacion, which has ruled Chile ever since the end of General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990. Jubilant Alliance leaders reckon that the result paves the way for them to win the presidency in an election in December next year-and to counter South America's recent drift to the left.rnThe victory was not clear-cut. Confus-ingly, municipal councillors are elected separately. In that ballot the Concertacion, which includes the Socialist and Christian Democrat parties, won 45% of the total vote to 36% for the Alliance. But more people (some 10% more) voted for mayors than for councillors. The overall result confirmed opinion polls that make Sebastian Pinera, a wealthy businessman and the Alliance's putative candidate, the front-runner for the presidency.
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