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Political candidates in Chile have begun their electoral campaigns ahead of the Nov. 19 presidential and legislative elections. The event will also decide future regional councilors.
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Chile's eight presidential candidates had 20 minutes of airtime Friday night to present their campaign platforms in what is known as the "electoral slot" in the country's radio and television stations.
Elections in Chile are complex, since roughly 60 percent of people who can vote don’t participate in elections.
One of the main issues that will dominate this election will be the possibility of calling for a constituent assembly to change the Constitution, which was created in 1980 and approved in 1981 under the military regime of Augusto Pinochet.
Among the presidential candidates are former President Sebastian Piñera of the right-wing Chile Vamos party, Alejandro Guillier, an independent, Beatriz Sanchez of the leftist Broad Front, Carolina Goic of the conservative Christian Democracy Party and Jose Antonio Kast, a right-wing independent.
Since the military dictatorship ended in 1990, the country's center-left parties have won the past four elections. The right wing and centrists only won once, when Piñera received a majority of votes in 2010.
The campaign is set to end on Nov. 16.
President Michelle Bachelet has said she will not run again, as this is her second term. Piñera leads the polls with his candidacy in the Chile Vamos coalition.
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