Regional Elections
Regional board members are elected by each region's municipal councilmen, who form electoral colleges per regional province. Each region is allotted two board members per province plus 10 more in regions with up to 1 million inhabitants or 14 more in regions with over 1 million people. These additional board members are apportioned to provinces in relation to their share of the regional population in the latest census using the d'Hondt method. The winners within each province are those who obtain the most votes. However, if within a province, two or more candidates decide to run together as a list, then the winners are decided using the d'Hondt method.
Regional board members serve four-year terms and can be reelected indefinitely. Elections take place 15 days after the councilmen take office. The newly elected regional board members are sworn in 60 days after their election. The last election took place on December 21, 2008 and the elected board members took office on February 19, 2009.
In October 2009 the Constitution was modified to allow the direct election by universal suffrage of the regional board members, who along with the intendant (appointed by the President of the Republic) form the regional government. They will serve for four years with the possibility of reelection. The number of regional board members will be proportional to the region's population and area in relation to the country. The law regulating regional administrations has not been modified to reflect this change, thus it is not known when the first such election will take place.
Read more about this topic: Elections In Chile
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