the 1925 constitution did not allow a person to be president for two consecutive terms. the incumbent president, eduardo frei montalva, was therefore ineligible as a candidate. the cia's "track i" operation was a plan to influence the congress to choose alessandri, who would resign after a short time in office, forcing a second election. frei would then be eligible to run. alessandri announced on 9 september that if congress chose him, he would resign. congress then decided on allende. soon after hearing news of his win, allende signed a statute of constitutional guarantees, which stated that he would follow the constitution during his presidency.