Candidates for President of Chile

Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet (born 11 November 1953) is a Chilean politician and the current mayor of Providencia, a prosperous commune of Santiago, serving since 2016. Prior to her current position, she held the role of Deputy in the Chilean Congress from 1990 to 1998, and subsequently served as a Senator from 1998 to 2011. In January 2011, she left her Senate seat to assume the role of Minister of Labor and Social Security under Chilean President Sebastián Piñera until July 2013. In the 2013 Chilean general election, she ran for President with the support of the Independent Democrat Union Party. However, she lost in a runoff to former President Michelle Bachelet.An economist by training, Matthei began her professional career as a lecturer at her alma mater, the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, before transitioning to a management role in the private sector. Following Chile's return to democracy in 1988, she ventured into politics. Besides her political career, Matthei is also an accomplished pianist.After a failed candidacy in the 2021 presidential election, Matthei is emerging as the front-runner for the 2025 presidential election.

Alfredo Duhalde Vásquez (June 30, 1898 – April 10, 1985) was a Chilean politician who served twice as provisional president in 1946.
Duhalde was born in the city of Río Bueno, the son of Pedro Duhalde and of Zoila Vasquez. After completing his primary schooling in his natal town, he completed his secondary education at the Liceo de Aplicación in Santiago, where he graduated in 1916. He then studied law at the Universidad de Chile. He married Yolanda Heufmann, and together they had 6 children: Yolanda, René, Sara, Carmen, Marta and Sonia.
He joined the army and was commissioned as a Cavalry Lieutenant. Later he dedicated himself to work his lands in the areas of Río Bueno and La Unión. He was one of the founders of the Banco Agrícola (Agricultural Bank). He joined the Radical Party and was elected a deputy in 1924 for Llanquihue and Carelmapu. In 1933 he was re-elected, this time as a deputy for Valdivia, Osorno y La Unión.
In 1939, President Pedro Aguirre Cerda appointed him Minister of Defense, position he held until 1940, and then again between 1942 and 1944 under President Juan Antonio Rios. In 1945 he was elected a Senator for Valdivia, Osorno, Llanquihue, Aysén, Chiloé and Magallanes. On September 26 of the same year, he was appointed Minister of the Interior, and assumed as vice president during the absence of President Rios, who had travelled to the United States. President Ríos returned and reassumed power on December 3, but by then he was already very ill and had to hand over his powers to Duhalde again a little more than a month later on January 17, 1946.
Duhalde assumed as vice president again until the death of President Rios, on June 27, when he became Acting President. On August 3 of the same year, he stepped down once again in order to run in his party's primaries for the upcoming presidential election, which he lost to Gabriel González Videla, who went on to win the general election later that year. He resumed as vice president on August 13, having been replaced in the interim by Vice Admiral Vicente Merino, and continued in office until October 17, when he finally stepped down completely, being replaced by his minister of the Interior, Juan Antonio Iribarren.
He remained a Senator until 1953, when he retired permanently from politics. Duhalde also was director and president of the Banco Osorno- La Unión (1960–1966), Presidente of the Athletic Federation of Chile, partner of the Duhalde, Dibarrant and Co. and honorary director of Colo-Colo F.C. He died in the city of Santiago in 1985.

Eduardo Cruz-Coke Lassabe (April 22, 1899 – March 18, 1974) was a Chilean political figure, the conservative candidate in Chile's 1946 presidential election and the principal creator of the Chilean health system.
Cruz-Coke was born in Valparaíso, Chile, the son of Ricardo Cruz-Coke and of Celeste Lassabe. He completed his secondary studies at the Padres Franceses in Santiago, and later graduated as a medical doctor from the Universidad de Chile in 1921. While still a student, Cruz-Coke together with classmate Emilio Tizzoni, founded the National Association of Catholic Students (Spanish: Asociación Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos) (ANEC) based on the Catholic social teachings. Cruz-Coke became its first president, and in 1920 he joined the Conservative party.
After working as a microscopy assistant to professor Juan Noé, in 1925 he became professor of physiology and pathology at the same university, a position he retained until 1955. The same year, he travelled to Berlin to a sexology congress and remained in Europe studying for a year. At his return, he founded the Society of Biology of Santiago in 1928. Between 1927 and 1937 he was Chief of Medicine at the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
Between 1937 and 1938 Cruz-Coke served as Minister of Public Health, Social Assistance and Welfare appointed by President Arturo Alessandri. During his tenure, Cruz-Coke implemented a health program based upon a strictly scientific (as opposed to politic) approach to tackle the main health challenges, particularly maternal and infant mortality. He was the force behind Law 6026 (for Mother and Child) and Law 6174 (of Preventive Medicine). He set up a "National Food Council" (Spanish: Consejo Nacional de Alimentación) that defined innovative policies to improve the alimentary weaknesses, particularly among the low-income sectors, and organized the Preventive Medicine Services to diminish labour sickness. The measures had a positive impact in Public Health indexes and were followed by its successors.
In 1941, Cruz-Coke was elected a senator for Santiago and was reelected in 1949. In 1946, he was proclaimed presidential candidate by the Conservative party, but a split of his voting base between him and Fernando Alessandri resulted in the triumph of Gabriel González Videla, with Cruz-Coke finishing in second place. In 1948, Cruz-Coke founded the Social Christian Conservative Party.
After the end of his senatorial term in 1957, he decided not to run for reelection. In 1958 he was named Ambassador to Peru, where he remained until 1960. In 1963 he was named the first president of the newly established National Committee on Atomic Energy (Spanish: Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica), and in 1965 produced the first plan for the use of nuclear power in the mining industries of the north of Chile. He died in Santiago, in 1974, at the age of 74.