I must admit that I was getting more excited about this election than I was about the U.S. presidential ones. I’m not so sure why, because I realize that no matter who wins the same policies of free-markets and good governance will continue.

There will now be a runoff on January 15, which means I’ll still be in the country to provide you all with on-the-ground liveblogging goodness. The campaign will now be between Socialist Michele Bachelet and centre-right Sebastian Pinera, who have both promised to continue the fantastic economic policies of President Lagos while vowing to cut unemployment and decrease crime.

But while the media continues to focus on Bachelet, they don’t seem to know anything about Chilean politics and history, and I think Pinera is a serious contender. For one, Lavin is out of the race and has pledged his portion of the right behind Pinera. Also, the real ground in Chile is held by the Christian Democrats, and about half of their voters describe themselves as centre-left while the other half describe themselves as centre-right, which means that some of those voters could split toward Pinera.

Bachelet, while she has shown to be good with everyday people, has proven to be uncharismatic politically while Pinera is seen as young and energetic. Bachelet is also losing voters to the communists, who believe that her Socialist party is not “Allende enough.” In essence, she’s bleeding voters to both the left and right ever since Pinera showed up.

What’s more interesting is how the consensus on the future of the country has developed since Lagos became president. Everyone essentially agrees on the same policies, so a lot of it has to do about which personality they prefer. For example, my friend Cristina prefers Pinera because for the reasons I described above, whereas my friend Phillip prefers Bachelet for symbolic progressive reasons. These are both upper-class people who loathed the idea of Lagos in 1999, but have found that his policies have worked. People just don’t know who to vote for, something that to me is quite fascinating.

In any case, the ability for a divorced, single parent who is a woman to rise to candidacy for the presidency in Chile is absolutely amazing, and the ability of a rogue candidate to insert himself into the process and capture the right from the traditional authoritarian types is amazing as well. January 15 is going to be an interesting day.