allende contested the 1970 presidential election with jorge alessandri rodriguez of the national party and radomiro tomic of the christian democratic party. allende received 36.6% of the vote. alessandri was a very close second with 35.3%, and tomic third with 28.1%. although allende received the highest number of votes, according to the chilean constitution and since none of the candidates won by an absolute majority, the national congress had to decide among the candidates.