Recount overturns Allende granddaughter’s mayoral win

Santiago, Nov 14 (IANS/EFE) Maya Fernandez, a granddaughter of slain Chilean President Salvador Allende, saw her hopes of becoming mayor of the capital district of Nunoa dashed when a recount showed that she lost the Oct 28 election by a mere 30 votes.

Incumbent Pedro Sabat garnered 34,447 votes compared with 34,417 for Fernandez.

The initial results gave the victory to the 41-year-old Socialist candidate.

Sabat’s rightist RN party, however, formally challenged the tally and demanded a recount.

Maya Fernandez is the child of the late president’s daughter Beatriz Allende and Cuban diplomat Luis Fernandez Ona.

Beatriz Allende killed herself in 1977, four years after her father took his own life as troops sent by coup leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet stormed the Chilean presidential palace.

Two other candidates who lost family members to the 1973-1990 Pinochet regime triumphed in the Oct 28 balloting.

Carolina Toha was elected mayor of the Santiago Centro district. Her father, Jose Toha, was a minister in Salvador Allende’s Cabinet who died in the custody of the junta.

The winner in the capital’s Huechuraba district was the grandson of Gen. Carlos Prats, a former army commander killed by the Chilean secret police in 1974 while living in exile in Argentina.

—IANS/EFE

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IANS 2012-11-14 10:42:12