Michelle Bachelet Closes Door to Third Run for Chile Presidency
- First round vote in November; possible runoff in December
- Polls show Bachelet would have been very competitive
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Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she won’t run for head of state in this year’s election, resisting pressure for her to represent the center-left in a field that’s dominated by opposition contenders.
Good politics requires new generations to step up, and others should now seek the presidency, Bachelet wrote in a statement published Wednesday by Horizonte Ciudadano, a foundation that she established. There needs to be unity among progressive politicians, said Bachelet, who was Chile’s first-ever female head of state in 2006-2010 and then governed again in 2014-2018.