1964 Chilean presidential election

Chilean presidential election, 1964

September 4, 1964

Nominee Eduardo Frei Montalva Salvador Allende Julio Durán Party PDC Socialist Radical Alliance Liberal United Conservative Popular Action Front Popular vote 1,409,012 977,902 125,233 Percentage 56.1% 38.9% 5.0%

President before election Jorge Alessandri Independent Elected President Eduardo Frei Montalva PDC

Presidential elections were held in Chile on 4 September 1964. The result was a victory for Eduardo Frei Montalva of the Christian Democratic Party, who received 56% of the vote.

Electoral system

The election was held using the absolute majority system, under which a candidate had to receive over 50% of the popular vote to be elected. If no candidate received over 50% of the vote, both house of the National Congress would come together to vote on the two candidates that received the most votes.

Campaign

The Church Committee of the US Senate revealed in 1975 that the Central Intelligence Agency interfered substantially with the election to prevent the accession of Marxist Salvador Allende. The CIA secretly funded more than half of Frei's campaign and supported an array of pro-Christian Democratic groups. Two other political parties were funded as well in an attempt to spread the vote. The CIA's assistance to Frei took the form of polling, voter registration and get out the vote drives, in addition to covert propaganda.

Results

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Eduardo Frei Montalva	Christian Democratic Party	1,409,012	56.1
Salvador Allende	Socialist Party	977,902	38.9
Julio Durán Neumann	Radical Party	125,233	5.0
Invalid/blank votes		18,550	–
Total		2,530,697	100
Registered voters/turnout		2,915,121	86.8
Source: Nohlen