Chile: Appeal to the Arbiter

There was none of the jostling, banner-waving excitement of a normal Chilean election. The festooning posters that usually blot out Santiago were scarcely in evidence, and even the slogans were muted. That is the way Eduardo Frei, Chile's new Christian Democratic President, wants it. Next week, when 2,920,000 voters choose a full Assembly and half of the Senate, the issue, as Frei somberly puts it, is whether or not they will "make a Parliament for Frei"—in other words, make it possible to carry out the platform on which he was elected last September.

In a head-to-head campaign against Chile's powerful,...