SANTIAGO: Ricardo Lagos has dropped out of Chile's 2017 presidential race, the center-left candidate said in televised remarks on Monday after the nation's powerful Socialist Party endorsed leftist independent Alejandro Guillier on Sunday.
Lagos' departure leaves Guillier as the only mainstream left-of-center candidate in the nation's presidential field. He is likely to face Sebastian Pinera in the November general election, which is shaping up to be a battle between the conservative's pro-growth, free-market agenda and Guillier's pledge for social-democratic reforms.
"We detailed our platform ... but I must admit that my own political home, the center-left, has not converged around it," said Lagos, who is widely considered more moderate than Guillier.
When Chile's presidential campaign began in earnest several months ago, the election appeared to be a relatively sleepy contest between Lagos and Pinera, who are both market-friendly ex-presidents.
But while the right has unified around Pinera, Lagos has flagged in the polls, garnering the support of only 3 percent of voters in the latest survey by Chilean pollster Adimark.
Meanwhile, support for Guillier, a journalist-turned-senator who was relatively unknown in Chilean politics until a few months ago, has surged as corruption scandals and a sluggish economy in Chile have turned his outsider status into an asset.
On Sunday, the Socialist Party of current President Michelle Bachelet decided to endorse Guillier after pitched debate, effectively ending Lagos' chances.
According to Adimark's latest survey, 27 percent of respondents preferred Pinera, while 23 percent planned to vote for Guillier.
The race also features several candidates with support in the low- to mid-single digits, such as hard-left Beatriz Sanchez and conservative populist Manuel Jose Ossandon.
Some of the minor candidates have pledged to participate in primaries in July, while others have not, raising the prospect of a run-off that would take place in December if no candidate wins more than half of the vote.
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