Chilean presidential election, 1970 |This article is part of the
series: Politics and government of A presidential election was
held in Chile on 4 September 1970. A narrow plurality (36.6
percent of the total vote) was secured by Salvador Allende, the
candidate of the Popular Unity coalition of leftist parties.
Because no candidate obtained an absolute majority, the election
required a further vote by the National Congress of Chile in
which Allende was overwhelmingly confirmed as the winner, the
Christian Democrats voting in favor of Allende, and thus he
assumed the presidency in accordance with the Chilean
Constitution of 1925. Eduardo Frei Montalva and his Christian
Democratic Party would later unite with Allende's opponents to
form a congressional majority in favor of declaring his
presidency illegal in August 1973, catalyzing the Chilean coup
of 1973 a few weeks later. The CIA did not provide direct
assistance to any candidate, as they had in 1964, but rather
focused on anti-Allende propaganda, ultimately