STUDENT ELECTIONS IN CHILE
By José Valdés
Santiago, Chile
The elections held during October and November in the FECH [Federacién de Estudiantes de Chile] came out as follows:
Santiago Concepcién
Votes Votes
Democracia Cristiana 5,096 Democracia Cristiana 1,015 Partido Comunista 2,629 Movimiento de Izquierda Partido Socialista 1,137 Revolucionaria 744 Partido Radical 869 Partido Radical 575 Partido Nacional (Rightist) 502 Partido Socialista 291 Movimiento de Izquierda Partido Comunista ; 275 Revolucionaria 465 Partido Nacional 185
Valparaiso Antofagasta
Movimiento Universitario de . Movimiento Universitario de Izquierda 1,011 Izquierda 405 Democracia Cristiana 701 Democracia Cristiana 200 Partido Radical 122 Partido Nacional 114
These results show that the Christian Democrats are losing influence, although slowly, in the student movement. The elections also show that the left could have won in Concepcién and perhaps in Santiago if a common slate had been run against the Christian Democrats.
The MIR [Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario -- Revolutionary Left Movement] appealed for the formation of a united front to meet the main enemy (the Christian Democrats), but the bureaucratic leaderships of the Communist and Socialist parties were opposed to it. The Socialist youth had agreed in principle to work together with the MIR, but the leadership succeeded in blocking the wishes of the rank and file. .
In Concepcién, if the Socialist party had agreed to a united front with the MIR, the Christian Democrats could have been defeated and for the first time the chairmanship would have been held by a member of the MIR. But the Communist and Socialist parties prefer to block the MIR, even if it means playing into the hands of the bourgeois, pro-imperialist Christian Democrats. Communist party representative Carlos Cerda went
so far as to ask the Christian Democrats to drop the slate of the MIR from the ballot. (El Mercurio, October 27.)
The Communist party joined with the Christian Democrats in not counting votes cast for the MIR. Members of the MIR impounded the ballot boxes in some of the universities in order to gain assurance of a correct computation. Despite this bold action, it was estimated that in Santiago some 250 votes for the MIR were not counted.
In commenting on how the Christian Democrats had stolen votes from the National party, the October 24 issue of El Diario Ilustrado said that "something similar happened to the MIR which is petitioning for cancellation of the results due to acts committed this time by the Communist youth. 'We're going to knock out the votes for the Nationals one by one,' a Communist youth told a member of the Christian Democrats. ‘In a few minutes it will be the turn of the MIR.'"
In the October 21 issue of Las Noticias de Ultima Hora, Dant6én Chelén of the MIR stated that "in the Instituto Pedagégico 200 votes disappeared."
In those places where an honest count was made and no frauds were perpetrated, the MIR vote stood proportionately higher.
The student elections were of national interest, considerable attention being paid to them on the radio, television and in the press. In all these forums the candidates of the MIR explained their revolutionary Marxist positions.
Dantén Chelén, the MIR's candidate for the presidency of the FECH, declared in a press interview: "The preparation for-an insurrection, the conquest and consolidation of proletarian power, are phases of an uninterrupted and permanent global process. The decay of capitalism is the objective condition. Man's capacity in this revolutionary transitional epoch to transform reality through theoretical and practical action, confers on the so-called ‘subjective factor' a decisive, creative role of primary magnitude." (The magazine Punto Final, No. 16, November 1966.)