A national plebiscite was held in Chile on 5 October 1988 to decide whether Augusto Pinochet, the head of a military dictatorship that had ruled the country since the 1973 coup d'état, would remain president for a further eight-year term. Voters were asked simply to approve or reject Pinochet as the sole candidate proposed by the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, a mechanism set out in the transitory provisions of the 1980 Constitution.
The "No" option won with 55.99 percent of valid votes against 44.01 percent for "Sí," ending the possibility of Pinochet extending his rule and triggering a one-year transition mandated by the constitution. The opposition's victory was underpinned by a mass voter-registration drive, the legalization of most political parties—Marxist parties, including the Communist Party, remained excluded—and a television advertising campaign, built around the slogan "Chile, la alegría ya viene" ("Chile, joy is coming") and a rainbow logo, that is widely credited with having outperformed the government's "Sí" campaign. Presidential and legislative elections were held in December 1989, and Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin took office on 11 March 1990, formally ending seventeen years of military rule.
Background Army General Augusto Pinochet and the commanders of the Air Force, Navy, and national police seized power on 11 September 1973 in a coup that deposed the democratically elected Socialist president Salvador Allende, who died as the presidential palace was bombarded. A military junta led by Pinochet, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh, Navy Admiral José Toribio Merino, and Carabinero General César Mendoza took office that evening, initially leaving the 1925 Constitution nominally in force while subordinating it to the junta's own decrees. The National Congress was formally dissolved on 21 September 1973 by Decree-Law No. 27. Although the junta's four members had verbally agreed to rotate the presidency, an advisory committee staffed by officers loyal to Pinochet recommended against it. Under Decree-Law No. 527 of 17 June 1974, Pinochet, as president of the junta, assumed the executive power and the title of Jefe Supremo de la Nación ("Supreme Chief of the Nation"); a further decree of 17 December 1974 additionally gave him the title of President of the Republic. Thereafter the junta functioned solely as a legislative and constituent body until the return to democracy.
Over the following seventeen years, agents of the state and its collaborators were responsible for the killing or forced disappearance of more than 3,000 people and the torture or political imprisonment of tens of thousands more, according to the later Rettig and Valech truth commissions.
A commission set up by the junta on 24 September 1973 drafted a new constitution, completing its work in 1978; the Council of State, chaired by former president Jorge Alessandri, reviewed the draft before it was submitted to Pinochet and the junta in July 1980. A constitutional referendum regarded by some observers as "highly irregular" and "fraudulent" approved the new 1980 Constitution on 11 September 1980 by a reported 67 percent.Nohlen, p. 268
The Constitution took effect on 11 March 1981 and established a transitional period during which Pinochet held executive power and the junta held legislative power. Under its transitory provisions, no later than ninety days before the end of that period the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces and the Carabineros' general director—or, failing unanimity, the National Security Council together with the comptroller general—were to propose a single candidate for president of the following term, to be ratified or rejected by the electorate in a plebiscite. If voters approved the candidate, he would take office on 11 March 1989 for an eight-year term, with parliamentary elections to follow nine months later; if they rejected him, Pinochet and the junta would remain for one further year, until 11 March 1990, ahead of new presidential and legislative elections.
Road to the plebiscite Electoral and party legislation Chile's electoral registers had been closed since 19 November 1973, when the junta decreed their cancellation. A law on the organization of the Electoral Service, promulgated on 1 October 1986, provided for the reopening of registration boards within five months, and the registers reopened on 25 February 1987, the first opportunity for Chileans to register to vote since the coup. The first person to register in the commune of Santiago was Augusto Pinochet himself. Ultimately close to 91 percent of eligible citizens registered, a turnout so large it unnerved both the government, which feared a mass registration of opponents, and the opposition, which worried about double-registration meant to sabotage the count.
A separate transitory provision of the 1980 Constitution had banned party-political activity until an organic law on political parties took effect. That law, No. 18,603, was finally promulgated on 23 March 1987 after several years in the legislative process, allowing parties to organize legally for the first time since the coup. The right-wing National Party became the first party to be legally recognized, on 23 December 1987; in the following months several further parties on both sides of the plebiscite, including National Renewal and the Christian Democratic Party, were legalized in turn. The Communist Party of Chile, although it campaigned openly for "No," was not among them: Marxist parties remained legally excluded under the 1980 Constitution's ban on parties advocating a "totalitarian" or class-based conception of society, and the Communist Party was not legally constituted until December 1990, after the return to democracy.
Nomination of Pinochet From around 1986, Pinochet made increasingly explicit his intention to stand as the regime's candidate, declaring on 11 July that year that "nobody can deny the government's right to project itself beyond 1989." On 7 September 1986 he survived an assassination attempt by the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez on a road near the Cajón del Maipo, in which five of his bodyguards were killed. In July 1987 he appointed Sergio Fernández, who was credited with having helped secure victory in the 1980 referendum, as interior minister to help manage the plebiscite campaign.
In the dictatorship's final years, the commanders-in-chief of the Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros distanced themselves from Pinochet and pressed for a civilian candidate to represent the regime, but Pinochet insisted on standing himself. According to Air Force commander Fernando Matthei's later account, he, Admiral José Toribio Merino, and Carabineros General Director Rodolfo Stange considered a civilian candidate preferable and believed Pinochet should not be exposed to a probable defeat. In a 1987 interview, Merino said the candidate should be a civilian in his early fifties, widely understood at the time as a reference to former foreign minister Hernán Cubillos; Finance Minister Hernán Büchi and General Ernesto Videla were also discussed within the junta as possible alternatives. Matthei recalled Pinochet declaring himself a candidate in April 1988, before the commanders had agreed on a procedure for choosing one.
The commanders met on 12 July 1988 to agree procedures for the nomination, and on 18 July set 30 August as the date on which the candidate would be announced. On 30 August 1988, the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces and the Carabineros' general director formally proposed Pinochet as their candidate. According to Matthei, Merino made the junta's support conditional on Pinochet pledging to govern as a civilian and relinquish command of the army if he won; Pinochet agreed and promised to announce this on 11 September, but his speech that day contained no such announcement, which Matthei says left the other commanders dismayed. Pinochet accepted the nomination in the same ceremony and delivered a 25-minute address. The plebiscite was called for Wednesday, 5 October 1988.
The "Sí" option was backed by the parties that would later form the Alianza—Independent Democratic Union and National Renewal—along with a faction of the National Party, the Liberal Democrat Party of Chile, Radical Democracy, National Advance, the Democratic Party of Chile, and the Party of the South.
Opposition Despite initial disagreement over the legitimacy of the 1980 Constitution, the opposition ultimately chose to participate within its framework. On 2 February 1988, thirteen opposition organizations agreed to campaign for "No" and to press for minimum guarantees of a clean vote, forming the Concertación de Partidos por el No, the direct forerunner of the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia. After Pinochet's nomination was announced, seventeen parties—including the Christian Democrats, the Socialists (in several factions), the Humanist Party, and the Party for Democracy—signed a joint declaration, Principios básicos de institucionalidad democrática, stating that a "No" victory would mark the starting point of a process to rebuild genuine democracy in Chile.
The plebiscite
As set out in the 1980 Constitution, the plebiscite offered two choices:
Yes: the proposed candidate is approved. Pinochet takes office on 11 March 1989 for an eight-year mandate, and parliamentary elections are held nine months after he is sworn in. The junta continues to exercise legislative power until the newly elected Congress takes office on 11 March 1990. No: the proposed candidate is rejected. Pinochet and the junta remain in power for another year beyond the original eight-year mandate. Presidential and parliamentary elections are held three months before Pinochet's extended term expires. The newly elected president and Congress take office on 11 March 1990.
Voting was open to Chilean citizens and to foreign residents of at least five years' standing who were 18 or older on election day. Only those on the electoral roll could vote, and while registration was voluntary, voting was compulsory for those registered.
Political endorsements
By 1988 the historic National Party had itself split over the plebiscite into rival "Sí" and "No" factions, both using the party's name; contemporary "No" propaganda from the latter carried the slogan "Partido Nacional vota: No." The parties below are sourced principally to contemporary and retrospective Chilean press accounts of the "Sí" and "No" coalitions.
Yes Democratic Party of Chile () Great Civic Front of Chile () Independent Democratic Union () Liberal Democrat Party of Chile () National Advance () National Party for the "Sí" () National Renewal () Radical Democracy () Social Democrat Party () Party of the South () Poder Femenino (women's civic movement supporting the government)
No Christian Democratic Party () Christian Left () Communist Party of Chile () — campaigned for "No" though not itself legally constituted at the time Humanist Party () Liberal Party () — a founding member of the Concertación de Partidos por el No MAPU Obrero Campesino National Democratic Party () National Party for the "No" () Party for Democracy () Popular Socialist Union () Popular Unitary Action Movement () Radical Party () Revolutionary Left Movement Social Democracy Party of Chile () Democratic Socialist Radical Party (PRSD, Facción Sule/Luengo) Socialist Party of Chile (Almeyda faction) () Socialist Party of Chile (Historic faction) () Socialist Party of Chile (Mandujano faction) () Socialist Party of Chile (Núñez faction) () The Greens ()
Null vote Chilean Socialist Party (), a populist party created by pro-junta factions to draw support away from the "No" vote.
Campaign