Allende Wins a Close Election in Chile.

By 1970, the nation of Chile had experienced a political history that made it unusual in relation to other Latin American nations. Chile had developed strong and stable political institutions and generally avoided the military coups, civil wars, and dictatorships that plagued much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere. The four decades preceding the presidential election of 1970 had witnessed a lively, competitive, pluralistic, multi-party democracy with political organizations ranging from the Marxist left to the far right. Elections revealed a tripartite political division into left, right, and centrist forces of roughly equal strength. Presidents nearly always took office after receiving a plurality, rather than a majority, of votes.