1989 Chilean general election

Chile's vote of December 14, 1989 ended the military regime in place since 1973. Turnout was close to 95 percent, and Patricio Aylwin of the center-left Concertación won the presidency with 55 percent while his coalition took a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Read it for the fine print. Only 38 of the 47 Senate seats were elected, with appointed senators filling the rest, so a decisive popular win did not translate into control of Congress. Chile shows how an outgoing regime can lose the election and still lock parts of its system in place, and how long a democracy can take to rewrite rules it inherited rather than chose.