Chilean parliamentary election, 2009

← 2005

December 13, 2009

2013 →

All of the 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
18 out of 38 seats in the Senate
61 deputies and 20 senators seats needed for a majority

Turnout

87.70%

	First party	Second party

Party	Concert & Together We Can	Coalition for Change
Last election	65 D & 20 S, 51.76%	54 D & 17 S, 38.72%
Seats won	57 D / 19 S	58 D / 16 S
Seat change	8 D / 1 S	4 D / 1 S
Deputies' vote	2,934,378	2,874,674
Percentage	44.35%	43.45%
Swing	7.41 pp	4.38 pp

Parliamentary elections were held in Chile on December 13, 2009, in conjunction with the presidential election. The totality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 18 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election.

The centre-right Coalition for Change improved on the Alliance for Chile's result in 2005 by winning 58 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, while the governing center-left Concertación (CPD) was reduced to 57 seats. The election was notable because the election of three communist MP's (Jorge Teillier, Hugo Gutiérrez and Lautaro Carmona) and the defeat of the current Speaker of the Chamber Rodrigo Álvarez (UDI) in hands of a younger (RN) Marcela Sabat. Also is disappointing to the Government not to be able to break the dubbing of the center-right in Las Condes. In the career to the Senate the surprise was Joaquín Lavín's defeat.

According to the Chilean Constitution, the citizens could exercise the right to suffrage, or, those who have expired 18 years of age and have not been condemned to a sorrow superior to 3 years of prison (a distressing sorrow). To take part in the elections it was needed to be before inscribed in the electoral records and to present the bond of identity. The requirements to register were a 18-year-old major being in the day of the election and to have Chilean nationality or to be a resident foreigner for more than five years in the country (that one credits with a certificate expressed by the respective provincial governor). The right to vote was remaining suspended by interdiction in case of dementia, for being accused by crime that deserves a distressing sorrow or for crime for terrorism and for sanction of the Constitutional Court (in conformity to the article 19 n. º 15 clause 7. º of the Constitution).

In agreement to the legislation of the epoch, the process of inscription in the electoral records was voluntary, but after having registered, the elector was forced to support to perpetuity and only it could apologize for reasons of health or for being located to more than 300 kilometres of distance of the place of voting, fact of the one that can leave witness him in the Carabineers' most nearby unit of Chile. In case of not helping or not to take up office as member of table, the electors could be condemned to the payment of fines. Though on March 27, 2009 there was promulgated by the chairwoman Michelle Bachelet the law that establishes the automatic inscription of the voters and that allows the voluntary voting of these, 4 the entry in force of the above mentioned regulation was not applicable in these elections due to the lack of the law that was regulating sayings procesos.5 The election with voluntary vote materialized in the municipal elections of 2012.

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